


I Just Can't Stand To See You Leaving

by Gryffindancer



Series: What Decides the Family Tree [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Daddy Issues, Darcy Lewis is Tony Stark's Daughter, F/M, Family, Family Angst, Father-Daughter Relationship, Smut, TaserHawk - Freeform, Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-05-11 07:53:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 42,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5619334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryffindancer/pseuds/Gryffindancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy is happy with her life interning for her best friend, and hanging out on the regular with mythical Nordic space gods. But when Darcy's father dies, she has to figure out how to move on from his death without letting go of his memory. And in doing so she just might find more family than she ever knew she had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy new year, everyone!
> 
> New year, new story.
> 
> I hope you all had wonderful holidays! This is my new project for the foreseeable future. I'm still going to be finishing _The 20/20 Experience_ and adding future chapters to _A Woman's Place_ , but this is the first chapter of a new long-fic that was inspired by some NaNoWriMo writing.
> 
> I wish I could assure you that updates will be frequent, but I don't want to make promises I can't keep. This one's a little heavier than some of my previous stuff, so it's taking me much longer to write and edit than usual. But I will be trying to put out at least two chapters per month! Cross your fingers for me that I can make that happen:) Right now my outline is looking at at least 10 chapters.
> 
> The title is from Beyoncé's song, _Heaven_.
> 
> Without further ado...

Darcy loaded the beat up and well aged guitar case into the trunk of the cab. Everything else she was taking with her fit neatly into two medium sized suitcases and her olive green, canvas messenger bag. Darcy told the cab driver to take her to LAX, and settled into the back seat for the thirty minute drive.

While she sat there she fiddled with her phone. She checked her Facebook, then opened her voicemail app, then quickly closed it. She checked her Instagram feed, then reopened her voicemail app, then quickly closed it again. She had a new Snapchat from Jane which she opened -- it was just a close-up of Thor's abs with a bunch of winky face emojis as the caption. Darcy rolled her eyes and closed Snapchat. Her finger hovered over the tape-loop image of the voicemail app, and after about a minute of hesitation she finally pressed it. She held the phone up to her ear as the first saved voicemail began playing.

 _"Hi honey, it's dad. I just wanted to see how you were doing, but I guess you're busy right now. Or maybe I've got the time zones messed up again. So maybe you're busy sleeping right now..."_ there was a light chuckle then, _"But I just wanted to say that I miss you. Okay, give me a call when you can. Love you, princess. Bye."_

Darcy blinked back tears and pushed down the painful gripping sensation in her chest as the next saved voicemail began to play.

 _"Hey Darcy,_ Came Jane's harried voice, _"So I got us hired. Well, I got me hired, but I can't go without you. So I'm gonna tell Tony that if he wants me he has to take you too. Oh wait, it's with Stark Industries -- did I say that part? So yeah, Tony as in Tony Stark. What the hell, right? The whole thing is totally nuts. He's kind of an asshole, but I explained my new set of theories from the data we collected from the Convergence to him and he didn't think I was completely crazy. And he said he wanted to invest in my research and give me my own private lab with equipment that actually works without duct tape and rubber bands. So we're moving to New York. Well I am. And I hope you are too, because I need you. That other intern -- Ewan? Ivan? Whatever his name is, he's nice and he's been helpful, but I'm already falling apart without you. And I'll talk to Tony about it."_ Jane paused, _"I hope everything is going okay with getting your Dad's stuff together. Let me know if there's anything I can do."_ A deep voice said something quietly in the background then before Jane continued, _"Thor says 'hi,' and to let him know if he can be of any assistance too. Okay...give me a call and let me know about New York. Talk to you later, Darcy."_

Darcy sniffled quietly in the backseat and closed the voicemail app. She had pulled herself together by the time the cab had reached the airport, and she paid him, leaving him a decent tip. She loaded her two suitcases onto a curbside trolley to wheel them in to the check-in desk, where she checked her bags and got her printed boarding pass. Then she made her way through the thankfully short security line.

Darcy got a coffee which she sipped while she waited to board at the gate. She looked back at her boarding pass.

First class.

She didn't know quite how to feel about that. Apparently she had been given an upgrade courtesy of Pepper Potts herself. Darcy had never flown first class in her life. Flying first class was just one of those things that she thought she would never do.

Every time when she had boarded a triple seven flight, she'd just glanced to the left at the luxurious pod seats with flight attendants bringing around trays of complementary champagne, before turning to the right to her tiny, cramped economy seat. Thinking, as she popped open the tab on her free can of coke and tearing open her package of pretzels, how nice it would be to have money.

She had grown up, not poor exactly. But her family always had to stretch a bit to make ends meet. Her father worked hard at blue collar jobs all his life, while also trying to support them the best he could with his music. But after her mom died when she was twelve, her dad had to give up playing to take on another job so he could pay for the funeral and keep up with their mortgage payments.

Darcy shook her head slightly. This all was almost too much. Especially in the face of everything that had happened in the last month.

_"Jane, seriously. You have to eat something other than Poptarts today. Thor is gonna kill me if you pass out because you haven't had anything other than artificial flavored strawberry jam and glorified cookies for three days."_

_"No he's not."_

_"Okay, yeah maybe not. I'm his favorite...I mean, besides you." Darcy grabbed the back end of the soldering iron Jane was hunched over her desk and using, and pulled it out of her grasp. "But he's not gonna be happy, all the same."_

_"Hey! I was using that!"_

_"No, really." Darcy deadpanned._

_"Darcy, I just have to put together this one last circuit board and then, I promise, I can --"_

_Jane's promises were cut off by the sound of Darcy's phone ringing. She pulled it out of her back pocket and saw a number she didn't recognize flash across the screen._

_Darcy usually didn't pick up calls from strange numbers (she figured if it was important, they'd leave her a voicemail and she'd call them back), but something in her gut told her to answer it anyway._

_"Hello?"_

_"Hello." The deep voice on the other end greeted. "Is this Darcy Lewis?"_

_"Yeah. Who's this?"_

_"My name is Mark Cooper, and I'm an attending cardio-thoracic surgeon at Los Angeles County General. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this..."_

_Darcy's blood ran cold as the doctor spoke._

_"Darce?" Jane asked, oblivious to the fact that Darcy's whole world had just come crashing down. "What's wrong. You look pale."_

Jane met Darcy at JFK when her plane landed. The tiny scientist was bouncing on her toes behind a black-suited driver who held a sign that said _Lewis._

"Darcy!" Jane squealed when she saw her friend, and she pushed past the driver to run and hug her.

Despite all of her uncertainty about the situation, Darcy had to admit that it was a relief to see Jane. She relaxed immediately into the other woman's hug in a way she hadn't been able to in weeks.

"Oh god, I've missed you Janey."

"I missed you too, Darce."

"What's with the peguin on parade?"

"Oh, sorry. This is Tony's driver, Happy Hodges."

"Hogan, ma'am." The driver corrected with a small cough, as he put the sign down.

"Oh, sorry. I mean, Hogan Hodges."

Darcy looked from Jane to the driver, who looked like he was working not to roll his eyes and stuck out his hand. Darcy shook it.

"Happy Hogan, ma'am."

"Ah. Yeah, she's not great with names." Darcy suppressed a laugh at her friend's expense, "Black holes and quantum theory, yes; Names, not so much."

Happy laughed and after insisting on taking Darcy's luggage, he led them to the car that was parked outside.

"A fucking limo!?" Darcy exclaimed as she settled into the luxurious backseat beside Jane.

"Right? Tony's ridiculous." Jane agreed emphatically, as she pulled out a chilled bottle of water from the mini fridge across from them. She took a sip and offered it to Darcy, who declined, shaking her head.

Darcy settled back into the soft leather seat as they headed away from the airport. Being with Jane, Darcy finally felt like she could relax for the first time since that godawful phone call, weeks ago. Jane was the closest thing she had to family anymore, and it was comforting to be back with her friend.

Darcy closed her eyes and sighed, "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too." Jane said sincerely, "Also, I found out I have no idea how to make coffee when you left. Tony's working on a custom brewer that'll make our usual orders when we go science-dark to the rest of the world, but I think it's still got a few kinks."

"Oh god. You people are helpless."

"We kind of are. But Tony will never admit it."

"Of course not." Darcy shook her head.

Jane took her hand, "It's good to have you back, you know."

Darcy smiled to herself as she relaxed into her seat and watched the tall buildings rush past outside.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you wonderful humans!
> 
> This past week has been completely insane. I've been working constantly, teaching a ton of dance classes, and I've had practically no downtime whatsoever.
> 
> BUT, I forced myself to relax the other night and I was able to knock out most of this chapter then.

Darcy groaned when her alarm went off the next morning.

She rolled over to turn the obnoxious noise off, and promptly fell off of the couch and onto the floor with a flailing thump.

"Yep. Good. I wanted that to happen." She muttered sarcastically as she pulled herself up by the coffee table. She had stayed the night on Thor and Jane's couch until she could get set up in her new apartment.

Well, Cap's apartment.

Darcy was subletting from him while he was off looking for his old friend. Jane had given her the short version, but it seemed like a complicated situation to say the least. Not that anything in their lives was much less than complicated once gods and superhumans got involved.

The downside was that it was all the way out in Brooklyn -- Bed-stuy to be exact. She had wanted her own space, but commuting was not her favorite kind of hassle. However, the place came already furnished, and the price was incredibly reasonable.

Darcy knew she was going to be getting a paycheck for coming back to assist Jane, but she wasn't sure just what it might look like. She had gotten a little bit of money from her dad's will, but there hadn't been much to give in the first place and most of that money went to paying for his funeral. So the more reasonable her rent, the better.

And that was exactly why she was waking up at the ass crack of dawn. To go meet with Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, to sign her official employment contract and find out the exact details of her employment benefits.

Darcy grabbed her glasses off the coffee table, and hoisted herself up to go make herself presentable.

Forty minutes later she was showered, dressed, and clutching a large mug of coffee like it held the secret to life itself when Thor came into the kitchen. He was wearing a pair of pajama pants and nothing else, but that in itself was an improvement over his usual habit of walking around his and Jane's place in the buff. Not that it was the worst sight in the world, but usually not what she was expecting first thing in the morning.

"Good morrow, Lady Darcy! How are you on this beautiful day?"

"I'm hanging in there." She said, lifting her steaming mug in greeting.

"If I may be so bold, it is a great joy to see you again. I hope you are doing well in light of the grief you have endured." Thor placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "These things are never easy."

Darcy sucked in a breath before downing the last of her coffee, "I'm okay, big guy. Like I said," she set the empty mug in the sink, "I'm hanging in there."

"Still," Thor said seriously as Darcy picked up her bag and phone from the counter, "Should you feel the need to speak to someone..."

Darcy nodded, "I gotcha, Hammerpants. I can talk to you." Thor smiled judiciously in response, "But I gotta go. Got a meeting with Pepper Pots, in ten, to sign my life away." She pasted a smile on her face and headed out the door.

*

"Come in, Ms. Lewis. Can I get you any coffee or tea?" Pepper asked, gesturing Darcy through the door to her office. 

"No thank you, Ms. Potts." Darcy replied, running a hand over her hair to smooth it down. She had felt really well put together up until Pepper had opened the door. But now she nervously fiddled with a loose thread on the hem of her jacket, feeling suddenly underdressed next to Pepper’s flawless designer ensemble.

"Please, call me Pepper." The redheaded woman smiled warmly. 

Darcy couldn’t help smiling back slightly. "Only if you call me Darcy."

"Deal," Pepper said with a smile, "Have a seat, Darcy.” She gestured to the leather chair across from her desk as she settled in behind it. Darcy sat down as Pepper pulled a sheaf of papers from the drawer of her desk. “I've got your contract all set for you. It's mostly just a modified version of our standard Stark Industries employment contract. But of course, there are a few unique specifications due to the nature of your previous experience with Dr. Foster.” Pepper flipped through the contract until she reached a certain page, and laid it out for Darcy to see, “You have automatic access to the residential spaces, since I know she often keeps strange hours. Additionally, there is an open offer for you to have on-site housing, should you ever wish to accept."

Darcy looked up then, "Oh, thanks. But I've got a place."

Pepper nodded, "So I've heard. You're going to be subletting Steve Roger's apartment, is that right?"

"Yeah, I'm actually supposed to start moving in this afternoon."

"That's wonderful!” Pepper smiled, “But the offer is still open to you at any time, should circumstances change, or should you change your mind."

"Thank you. That's really generous. I just would rather have a little space to settle in for the time being."

Pepper nodded, "I understand completely. Now, take a few minutes to read through your contract before you sign. Make sure that everything is to your satisfaction. You are also fully entitled to request to have your lawyer read through your contract as well, if you would like."

"I don't think that'll be necessary. I trust you to pull together a fair agreement. I might be concerned if it was Tony, but you...yeah, I trust you."

Pepper laughed sagely, "It shows good instincts to be wary of Tony. He's a good man, but a little...well, he's a bit of a loose canon."

"I've gotten that impression."

"Take a look at your contract. Read through it thoroughly, and don't be afraid to take your time. Let me know if you see anything you'd like to discuss or rework."

Darcy started reading through the contract. Everything seemed in order, but then she reached the page that covered salary and benefits.

"Holy shit!” Darcy blanched, then recovered herself a bit. “I mean...Oh god, sorry. I just... That's my salary?"

"Yes.” Pepper replied, “But of course, if you would like to negotiate for more, I'd be more than happy to call up a representative from legal on your behalf."

"What, more?” Darcy shook her head, “No, I just meant -- holy crap, that is a load of money."

"Well, it is a little more than a standard lab assistant makes. But then again, you are hardly a standard lab assistant, Darcy. Dr. Foster was very adamant that she could work with you, and you alone." Pepper informed her.

"Well, no one else seems to really _get_ her.” Darcy explained, “She's weird and stubborn, but there are tricks to getting her to take care of herself so she can do her work."

"I think there aren't very many people out there who would understand that about Dr. Foster. That makes you an invaluable asset to my company, Darcy. And I intend to pay you what you deserve in such a position."

Darcy nodded her head, "Thank you, Ms-- I mean, Pepper."

It took Darcy a while to sign everything, and when she finished she made her way down to Jane's lab. She swiped her new ID badge to grant her entrance.

"Janey, Janey, Janey. How's my favorite astrophysicist?" Darcy asked, sweeping over to Jane's workspace.

Jane looked up from her notes, and jumped up, spilling paperwork everywhere, "Ah! You're officially employed?"

"I am officially employed."

"Yay!"

"Now I just need to move into my new place, and I'll be all set!"

"Oh yeah." Jane mentioned, ignoring her fallen notes and walking across the room to check a readout from one of her machines, "Clint said something about that."

Darcy knelt down to collect her papers, "What was it?" She started to skim Jane's notes to try and put them back in some semblance of order, but could barely make out the scientist's chicken scratch handwriting. She sighed and shook her head. This would take at least a few hours to make heads or tales of. So she piled up as neatly as she could for the time being and left it to deal with later. 

"Um..." Jane squinted at the ceiling, trying to recall the memory, "I don't remember."

"Fantastic."

"Sorry."

"Any ideas?"

"Um...I remember something about keys. He said something about keys, I think."

"Okay, that would probably make sense. I need to figure out how and when I'm getting my keys from him."

"Ooh, yeah!" Jane's face perked up at that, "That rings a bell. I think he said he was going to leave them somewhere..."

Darcy walked over to Jane, "Well, what were you doing while he was talking to you?" 

"I think I was over there." Jane pointed across the room.

"By the whiteboard?"

"Um, yeah. I think I was writing those algorithms in the bottom corner there."

"Okay, think back." Darcy said, taking Jane by the hand and leading her to stand beside the board, "Picture it in your mind. You're standing here writing algorithms, and Clint is talking to you... Where was he?"

"Uhh, I believe..." Jane closed her eyes, "He was over there, by my desk." She pointed again.

"Awesome! Okay, so you're here writing on the board," Darcy left Jane by the whiteboard and crossed the room to stand by the pigsty Jane called a desk, "And he's over here saying things about keys..."

Jane closed her eyes again and took a breath, "I remember...I remember hearing the keys. I wasn't looking," she turned back toward the board and mimed writing on it, "but I remember hearing the keys jangling...He left them here!" She spun around quickly, "Or over there, actually."

Darcy grinned and sifted through the piles of paperwork and PopTart wrappers that littered Jane's desk until she came upon her goal.

"Aha! Found 'em!"

"Yay! See, I do listen!'

"Uh huh. Let's go. You can take a break and help me check out the new digs and unpack."

"Ooh! I'll buy you coffee to celebrate your new job and your new apartment!"

"Okay."

"Oh, crap. I think forgot my wallet today."

Darcy shook her head, "No worries, genius lady. Coffee's on me."

It was good to be back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I am truly sorry it's taken me so long to post again. Same excuses as always -- Real Life gets in the way and I find myself having to do silly things like work and pay rent. Oh well, lol. I'm back with Chapter 3, and Chapter 4 is not far behind, I promise! Though, it's a bit of a short one this time, I'm afraid.
> 
> Anywho...Happy reading!

Darcy had fallen back into her routines with Jane with relative ease. The only real problems cropped up when other people came by. Dr. Banner was fine. He was incredibly nice, if a little distant -- but Darcy understood his reasons, even if she didn't entirely agree with his logic. But whenever Thor dropped by, Jane would get hopelessly distracted, and Darcy would have to do her best to physically shove the demi-god from the room. Which needless to say, was super fucking difficult. The man was a tank.

And Tony was the worst. Whenever he came by, chaos was certain to follow. In just one week there had been no less than three small equipment fires in Jane's lab -- all very soon after a visit from Tony. But Darcy couldn't deny that she appreciated his sense of humor and the constant stream of sarcasm that flowed from his mouth. Not that she would ever tell him that. It would only encourage his behavior.

In the past week, Darcy had gotten her small collection of possessions unpacked and was starting to settle into her new place. Cap had left the place very neat and tidy -- she figured that fit with his squeaky clean Captain America persona. But she was starting to settle in and make the apartment feel like her own. 

She had scoped out a couple of flea markets for a royal purple shag living room rug, and an eclectically mismatched set of dishware. And earlier in the morning she had found a bright green velvet armchair, and was currently struggling to angle it right to get it through the front door of her apartment.

"Hi there."

"Ah!” Darcy yelled, startled by the sudden appearance of someone in the hallway. In her surprise she lost her grip on the armchair which fell and hit her foot. “Shit, ouch!”

“Crap! Sorry!" The man said, reaching out to lift the chair off her foot and steadied it with one hand. 

Darcy tipped her head back, eyes closed, and took a calming breath, then turned her head to the side to peek, with one glaring eye, at the man. 

Damn. He was cute. 

A little scruffy, maybe.

But definitely cute.

“Hi.” She replied still glaring.

“Sorry again.” He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck sheepishly, “Is your foot okay?”

“Yeah.” She admitted, “I think I’ll live.” Her foot twinged a little, but she wasn’t really hurt. 

“I’m Clint. You must be Darcy, right?”

“Oh hey, yeah. Landlord.” _Sexy landlord,_ Darcy thought immediately, “What's up?"

Clint shrugged and leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, still helping to balance the chair with one hand, "Just wanted to see how you were doing. See if you were settling in okay."

"Yeah, I'm doing great.” She leaned back against the other side of the doorframe, “I really like the building. And Steve's apartment is great. I'm just giving it some character." She tilted her head toward the chair.

"I see that.” He gave the chair a side-eye that made her think he was seriously judging her taste in furniture. “So I gotta say, you're not what I expected."

Darcy raised an eyebrow, "Um. Thanks?"

"That's not-- I meant...shit. Jane said she knew someone to sublet from Cap...I just figured you'd be a science-type."

"And how the hell do you know I'm not?" She kept a hand on the chair to balance it, but put her free hand on her hip.

"I just, um...I didn't mean..." The tips of his ears had turned pink and there was a frustrated wrinkle between his eyes. 

"You think just because I've got a great rack, that I can't be an astrophysicist?"

Clint tipped his head back and smacked it against the door frame a couple of times, "Fuck."

"Relax. I'm busting your balls."

"Aw hell." He dropped his head back on the door frame once more and left it there this time. He closed his eyes.

"As it happens I'm not really a science-type. I'm just a science-type wrangler. I keep the science-types from dying from pure personal neglect." She explained

Intrigued, he opened his eyes. "Ah. I see.”

“Motherfucker.” Darcy cried as the chair slipped and she had to lunge forward to keep it from falling over.

“Can I help you with that?"

"Afraid I might break a nail?" Darcy asked, but moved aside to let him help.

"I didn't--" Clint looked well and truly frustrated, and Darcy couldn’t help but laugh. 

"Dude. Chill. I'm kidding again."

He heaved a burdened sigh, "You suck."

"Only if you're lucky." Darcy muttered under her breath.

"What?" He asked, eyebrows high.

Darcy ignored his question, "You can just put that over in the corner. Thanks."

“Wait, what?"

Darcy stifled a laugh and changed the subject, "So, you own the building."

"Yeah." He replied, picking up the chair and easily maneuvering it through the doorway.

"You don't live at the tower?"

He set the chair down where she had pointed and paused, "I uh..."

Darcy sighed, "Dude. I know you're Hawkeye. I mean, I watch TV. And besides, Jane may not pay attention to anything, but Thor's not exactly great at secrets...or being quiet. His attempts at whispering are always cute though."

The corners of Clint’s mouth ticked up and he seemed to relax, "Hmm."

"So. Tower. You don't live there?" Darcy repeated her question as she dropped her bag by the front door.

"Uh, no."

"Why not?"

He shrugged, "I guess you could say I like to separate my work life from my home life."

"So you bought an apartment building."

"Yeah?"

"You know some people get hobbies."

"Really,” Clint deadpanned, crossing his arms.

"Yoga, knitting, cooking classes."

"I know how to knit."

Darcy ignored his comment and pressed on, "Golf, stamp collecting, bird-watching. All viable options."

"I've never cared for golf," He shrugged.

"And you chose to be a landlord."

"Your point?"

"Isn't it inconvenient if tenants have issues, like their faucets stop working, or their heat goes out while you're gone on a mission or something?"

"That's your question?"

"Yes."

Clint smiled at her, "I've got a handyman on call that tenants can call for urgent issues."

"Oh, huh. That makes sense. Thanks." She replied thoughtfully.

"Um, yeah. You're welcome."

There was about thirty seconds of what could only be described as an awkward silence before he spoke again.

"Listen…” Clint stuffed his hands in his pockets, “would you maybe wanna-- shit." His phone blared loudly then. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the screen. “Godammit. I’ve gotta go.”

Darcy nodded knowingly, “World savin’ time?”

He looked up at her, “Something like that, yeah.”

“Go save things. I’ll catch ya’ later.” and she waved him off.

“Yeah, I...shit.” His phone rang out with another tone, and he put it to his ear as he headed back toward the door, “Hello?” He lifted his hand toward Darcy in farewell as he left, still grumbling into his phone, “Yeah, I’m on my way. I know…”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back already! Told you Chapter 4 wasn't far behind:)
> 
> Also, please disregard the fake science behind the curtain. The only field of science I’ve ever been good at is anatomy. So if it sounds sciencey? Yeah, I totally made it up. I’ve done a bit of research to try and make it sound as legit as possible. But still definitely made up.

Almost a whole week later Darcy was fixing a pot of coffee when there was a knock at the door. She set the machine to brew while she went to answer it. 

Clint was on the other side, leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets, looking almost dead on his feet. There were deep bags under his eyes, and the scruff on his face said he probably hadn’t had a chance to shave in at least a few days.

Darcy smiled, “Hey, what’s up?”

He smiled back tiredly, “Nothin’ much. Just got back. Thought I’d check in and see how you were doing.”

“Oh, um, I’m good. Do you-- Do you wanna come in? I’m making some coffee.”

“Yeah, sure. Coffee sounds nice.” He nodded, following her in. 

She motioned for him to sit at the barstools by the island and went about pulling out a couple of mugs from the cabinet.

When the coffee was finished brewing, Darcy pulled the pot out and poured for them both, “Sorry if it’s too strong. I’m pretty sure my biological makeup includes about fifteen percent caffeine at this point, so I can’t tell anymore,” she apologized.

Clint chuckled and took the mug she handed him, “That’s fine. My job tends to keep me running at all hours, so I have my own caffeine dependency to feed.”

Clint took a sip and his eyes went wide, “Wow. That’s strong.”

Darcy grinned into her mug, “Well I do have to keep Jane running on a daily basis. The fate of the universe rests in my hands and is directly related to my coffee making skills.”

“Ah, I see.” He set his mug down on the countertop, “How is it working with the science crowd, anyways?”

“It’s good. Jane’s kind of my best friend. She’s a little nuts when she gets focused on Science!-ing but she’s amazing.”

“She seems a hell of a lot nicer than Tony, that’s for damn sure.”

“Come on, Tony’s not that bad.”

Clint snorted, “How long have you known him?”

“Only about a month.” Darcy rolled her eyes at the look Clint gave her, “And yeah, on the surface he’s definitely an ass, but deep down I'm pretty sure the guy has a heart.”

“Deep deep deep down apparently,” Clint said, picking his mug back up.

Darcy leaned forward, resting her forearms on the countertop. “Have you seen how much that man donates to charity?”

He shrugged, “I thought that was all Pepper’s doing?”

“I mean, probably a lot of it is thanks to her. But just last month he did three hospital appearances in the Iron Man suit.”

“Seriously?”

“That’s what Bruce told Jane the other day.”

“Hmm.” Clint nodded absently, as he glanced around her apartment. His eyes settled on the battered case in the corner, “Oh hey, you play guitar?”

Darcy felt her gut drop like she’d missed a step. “What?” she asked, looking up quickly.

Clint raised an eyebrow, “Your guitar? Over there. I play too.” He inclined his head towards the corner where it sat. 

Darcy leaned back again and felt that tightness in her chest return as tears threatened to form in her eyes. She picked up her mug, carrying it over to the sink, “Oh, uh...No.”

“Oh, then who…?”

Darcy dumped the rest of her coffee in the sink and set her mug by the edge, “You know what? I have to go. I forgot.. I uh...I’ve got a thing, so I have to, uh...” She picked up her bag from where it had been sitting on the couch, sniffing as surreptitiously as possible as she did so.

“What? What’s wrong? Did I say something?” Clint asked, genuinely confused as Darcy gathered her things and grabbed her keys.

“No, no. It’s fine." She said with a false smile as she opened the door, "I just forgot I have to do something. So, I guess I’ll see you later.”

Once she had closed the door and made it downstairs and out to the street she finally couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Darcy leaned up against the brick wall of the building and took a shaky breath to calm herself. It wasn't Clint's fault that he asked about such a touchy subject, and she knew it. She shouldn't have left the case out in the open like that. The gripping sensation in her chest eased as she calmed down and focused on breathing.

Clint was probably beating himself up, or at the very least, super confused about what had just happened. She left him in her apartment for god's sake! Darcy made a mental note to find him and apologize later. 

But for now, she needed to walk off the remaining tension and anxiety. At least the weather was nice for mid-October. She took another breath and pushed herself off the wall to take a walk around the block.

*

“Hey, Darce will you hand me the...the thing with the, um...it’s blue.” Jane asked, still staring at her monitor and reaching blindly around behind her towards Darcy.

“The folder of last month’s seismology readouts?”

“Yeah, that.”

“You onto something, Janey?” Darcy asked, finding the folder and rolling her chair back to hand it to Jane.

“Maybe...You see this?” Jane pointed to a small spike in the gravitational readings from a certain area they had been monitoring, “It lines up almost exactly with these small seismological events here.” She pointed to a readout from the blue folder.

“Oh wow," Darcy rolled her chair over beside Jane to take a look. "There was that decently sized earthquake in Russia this week. Did you see anything from that?”

“That’s what made me notice it! I noticed there was spike in the gravitational pull from the supermassive black hole in this region over here,” Jane indicated the area on the monitor, “around the same time as that earthquake. Just hours before, actually.”

“So they’re linked?”

“I think so.” Jane agreed, then muttered something else to herself under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Oh, I just said it kind of seems like a tide pull.”

“Oh yeah!”

“Like how the moon’s gravitational pull brings the tides in and out? This seems like the pull from the black hole is inducing these seismological events. But that would mean that the gravity from this thing is travelling faster than the speed of light…”

“I didn’t think gravity could do that.” Darcy mused.

“Neither did I. I mean this thing is like...a million times bigger than the sun. This is gonna mean huge effects on plate tectonics, and who even knows yet what this is doing to other planets...” Jane trailed off.

“Wow." Darcy stood and reached for her bag, "Okay, I’m gonna go stock us up with some food. It seems like we might be here for a while.”

“Pop-Tarts please.”

“Yeah, yeah, science lady. But you have to eat something else first.”

“Ugh. But the black holes!”

“What if I order some Chinese from that place you like?”

“Okay.” Jane conceded, “Get me some of that...uh, some of that stuff with the sauce, and the, uh...”

“Sesame chicken and crab rangoon. Yeah, I got you.”

When Darcy brought in food a while later, Jane was practically laying across the top of one of her machines trying to unplug it. 

“Jane. Janey, stop. What are you doing?”

“I need to restart this machine.”

“Move. I got it.” Darcy said, helping Jane down from her precarious position.

“Sorry. I was just on a roll and the readout thing jammed, but I couldn’t reach the outlet to unplug it.”

“It’s cool.” Darcy smiled, then knelt down to reach beneath the table the machine sat on to quickly unplug it and plug it back in.

“Oh.”

“You just worry about the sciencing, crazy lady. Now, what do you need me to do?”

“Can you write these numbers into that chart I started over there? I need to do some calculations, but I have to see all the factors laid out to find a starting place.”

Darcy looked over to the whiteboard Jane motioned to. The chart she had started was pretty much just a rough grid pattern that didn’t quite cover the board, and a couple of indecipherable squiggles in Jane’s shorthand.

It was going to be a long day.

*

The long day turned into an even longer night. Darcy caught a power-nap in the late afternoon, but by the time she woke up again, Jane had already blown past her progress, and she was once again swamped with translating Jane’s notes and recording output from the machines Jane kept tinkering with. Darcy asked Jarvis to have some food and coffee sent up around dinner time, and again around midnight. Tony only came in to interrupt a grand total of four times, which was certainly one of his better days.

“Hey, boobs McGee.”

“Lovely to see you again, Tony. Please just don't set anything on fire this time.” Darcy requested.

“Man, Foster is really going hardcore on this one, isn’t she?”

“Your point, Iron Dude?”

He crossed his arms and leaned his hips back against Darcy's desk, “I think I need to get that coffee machine fixed. I built it so that we could keep working on benders like this, and have caffeine within easy reach. But the thing keeps spraying hot coffee grounds everywhere, and I haven’t worked out the kinks yet.”

“Hmm. Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?” Darcy suggested sarcastically.

“Haha.” Tony rolled his eyes, “But, yeah.” He added seriously, “I tried that.”

Darcy laughed genuinely and shook her head.

“Let me know if Foster decides to come up for air before long. I’ve got stuff to show her.” He shifted to leave, giving Darcy a slight wave as he did.

“Will do, Maxi-millionaire.”

“Billionaire.” He corrected.

Darcy rolled her eyes, “Whatever.”

It was half past four in the morning before Darcy could convince Jane to slow down and rest. But of course the second Jane stopped running around like a crazy person, she crashed -- dead asleep --  and Darcy couldn’t move her from her spot at her desk. 

She had to call Thor down to carry Jane up to their place, who insisted she not make the whole trek back to Brooklyn on the MTA and pulled out the extra pillows and blankets for her to crash on the couch.

But thirty minutes later Darcy was still staring at the ceiling, willing herself to get tired. An hour ago she'd been about ready to drop dead she was so tired, and yet now she could barely close her eyes.

Darcy sighed, pushed back the blankets, and pulled herself up off the couch. She couldn't just keep staring at the shadows move across the ceiling as the sky got progressively lighter outside. She grabbed her glasses off the coffee table and padded out the door -- Jarvis would let her back in later.

She wandered down to the lab floor and found herself outside of Tony's personal workshop.

“Hey Jarvis?”

_“Yes, Miss Lewis?”_

“Will you let me into Tony’s workshop?” She figured she wouldn't be allowed entry -- that Tony had some fancy codes in place to only let him inside.

So she was surprised when Jarvis' warm British tone responded with, _“Right away, Miss Lewis.”_

Darcy heard the lock click open and she raised an eyebrow. But she pushed open the door anyways -- why look a gift-horse in the mouth, right?

She wandered around the room aimlessly, exploring the messy space. Tony was clearly an organized chaos kind of person. Dirty rags covered in grease littered the worktables, and tools surrounded his open tool-box, as if he just tossed them back in the general direction of the box rather than putting them back one-by-one. She nearly jumped out of her skin when something in the corner moved  as she passed it. But once her heart had restarted, she realized it was just one of Tony’s bots responding to her presence. She almost expected it to chase her out of the room -- she was snooping, after all --  but all it did was lift its claw-like appendage as if in greeting.

Darcy ran her hand along the top of the bot, and heard it make a contented whirring sound. Then the bot seemed to go back into sleep mode. She circled the room a while longer, until she came upon a what looked like a cappuccino machine out of science fiction.

The control panel had enough buttons to rival a Starbucks menu -- including everything from lattes, to macchiatos, to regular drip coffee, and options to add syrups, shots of espresso, extra foam or no foam at all, whipped cream, soy milk, and even sprinkles. The whole mechanism was automated --  the various parts behind a sheet of clear plexiglass.

She remembered Tony mentioning how the machine kept malfunctioning and she decided to take a look. Darcy searched until she found a screwdriver to remove the clear panel, and got to work.

An hour later, she put everything back where she found it, wiped off her hands, and headed back up to Jane and Thor’s apartment where she fell asleep on the couch almost instantly.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, beautiful humans!
> 
> Chapter 5 for your reading pleasure:) I started a quick little one-shot songfic this morning, so expect that soon. I should also be posting new chapters in _The 20/20 Experience_ soon!
> 
> But for now...

It was mid-afternoon by the time Jane and Darcy rolled out of bed, and almost dinner time by the time they got back to work.

“Ugh, I’m so tired!” Darcy groaned thumping her head down onto her desk. 

Jane leaned back from her computer and sighed, “Me too. But I’m still trying to figure out how the gravitational pull from these black holes can possibly be moving so fast.” She slumped down a bit in her chair and closed her eyes. “I need coffee.”

Darcy sat up and pushed back her chair to stand, “I’ll go make a coffee run so we can get back to work."

“Did someone say coffee?” Tony said, breezing into the room with a tray of tall paper cups in hand.

“Oh my god. Did you actually bring us coffee?” Darcy asked in mild awe.

“No,” Tony replied cynically, “I thought I’d chug four large coffees by myself.”

“As if you haven’t done it before.” Jane shot back without looking up from her monitor.

Tony seemed to think for a split second before shrugging casually, “Yeah, okay. I see your point. But!” He sat down on the corner of Darcy’s desk -- right on top of a Very Important stack of papers and research, “I did actually bring you both coffee.”

Darcy ignored his choice of seat at the prospect of the sweet release of caffeine.

“Gimme!” She demanded brightly, making grabby hands at the tray he still held.

“Keep your pants on, Lewis.” Tony said, pulling a cup from the tray and handing it to her. “And hand this one to Foster.” He handed her a second.

Darcy took a sip and sighed, “Ugh. Yes. Perfection.”

“This is really good.” Jane commented, “You get it from the place downstairs?”

“Nope! This stuff’s from my own machine.” Tony replied with a grin.

“I thought that thing was still on the fritz.” Jane said, taking a huge gulp of coffee.

“I thought so too. But I went into my workshop this morning and tested it, and it worked perfectly.” Tony said, still grinning. “I must’ve worked all the kinks out without even realizing it. I’m just that good.”

Darcy snorted into her coffee.

“What?” Tony demanded, setting his coffee down to cross his arms.

“Nothing, Mr. Ego.”

He gave an expectant shrug, “Well then how do you explain it?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. She had half a mind to tell him the truth -- that she had fixed his precious coffee machine. But she also wondered what the point of that would be. Besides, he might freak out and lock her out of his workshop in the future if he knew she’d been snooping in his stuff.

So she fibbed, “You see that chick right there?” She inclined her head towards Jane, who had already returned her focus to her research, “The hot, nerdy one? She’s dating a literal Norse demi-god. I’m not ruling out magic here.”

It was Tony who rolled his eyes this time. “I think you’re just jealous that I’m such a genius I can fix shit in my sleep.”

“Yep.” Darcy replied sarcastically, “That’s it. Totally jealous.” She nodded towards the fourth cup in the tray. “Who’s that one for?”

“Banner.” Tony responded after he finished swallowing a mouthful of coffee. “Actually, I meant to bring that to him.”

“Awe. Look at that! You can be nice sometimes, Tony!” Darcy grinned teasingly.

“Yeah, yeah.” Tony replied, standing from the desk. He put his own cup back in one of the empty slots on the tray and picked them both up, “Gotta be careful not to make a habit of it. People might start expecting things from me.” He said with mock seriousness, eyes wide.

Darcy laughed and waved him away, “Go. Bring Bruce his coffee. We’ve got shit to do.”

Tony shook his head as he left.

*

“Oh, Clint. Hi.” Darcy said when she opened the door.

She had been lounging on the couch watching Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix when there was a knock on the door. Jane had finally crashed again after another sixteen hour bender, and Darcy had taken the opportunity to head home seeing as it was well into the morning. She’d caught another power nap somewhere around six in the morning, so she wasn’t particularly tired. And after a shower and a breakfast burrito she’d decided to catch up on her Netflix queue. But an episode and a half into what she planned to be a thorough Grey’s marathon, Clint had apparently decided to swing by.

“Hey, Darcy.” He said uneasily, shifting a little from foot to foot. For a trained spy and assassin, the man was clearly not very good at hiding his emotions.

“Clint, look...” Darcy started, but Clint cut her off.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” He jumped in, “For the other day, I mean.”

“Oh...”

“I don’t really know what I said. I’ve been trying to run it through my head to figure it out. But I’m sorry that I upset you. I swear I didn’t--”

"Clint!" Darcy interrupted.

He paused, the look on his face still manically guilty.

"Clint, it's okay," she reassured him. "It's not your fault. I..." Darcy hesitated, but ultimately decided to just bite the bullet. There was nothing else she could think of to explain away her reaction the other day. She took a steadying breath, "It was my dad's. The guitar."

Clint's face relaxed slightly, and he rested a hand on the door jam.

"He died. Like two months ago." She explained, "It's still a bit fresh, you know?" Clint nodded, and she continued, “So I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out on you like that.”

“It’s okay, Darcy. I’m sorry that happened.” He said sincerely.

Darcy sighed and voiced her appreciation, “Thanks. You wanna come in?”

“I can’t actually,” Clint said, “I’ve gotta head over to the Tower and train with Nat in a few. And I’ve got to leave for a couple days. Work stuff.”

Darcy nodded, “Oh, okay.”

“But we should grab coffee sometime this week.” He suggested quickly.

“Um, yeah sure. I’m always down for coffee.”

Clint gave a small chuckle, and straightened, taking his weight off the door jam.

“So I’ll text you when I’m back, and maybe we can figure out a time to meet up?”

“Sounds good. Now go get your ass kicked.”

“Oh, ye of little faith. I can hold my own against Nat.”

“Sure you can.”

“I can!” He replied defensively.

“Uh huh. See you later Clint.” Darcy said, smiling as she closed the door.

*

“Hey Jane, have you seen the screwdriver? I just had it.” Darcy felt around blindly from her position beneath one of Jane’s precious machines. 

“Oh, I stole it. Sorry. Here.” Jane pressed the screwdriver into Darcy’s open hand.

“Thanks.” She replied and went back to work.

A minute late she heard someone enter the room, and Jane greeted them, “Oh hey, Natasha.”

Darcy instinctively sat up and promptly whacked her head on the machine, “Shit.”

“Crap, Darcy! You okay?”

“Yeah,” Darcy responded, sliding out from under the hunk of metal that had just attacked her and holding a hand to the spot she’d hit on her head, “I’m just peachy.”

Natasha Romanoff was standing beside Jane, her face impassive.

Jane turned towards the redheaded woman, “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I actually came by to see Darcy.” Natasha said with an almost imperceptible smile.

Darcy couldn’t help it, a bolt of fear shot through her gut, “Me? Why?” Natasha was scary. And she had no idea why she’d be looking for her, which freaked her out.

Natasha wandered over to where Darcy still sat on the floor and offered her hand to help her up. “I hear you and Clint have been getting pretty close.”

“Wait,” That stopped her up short, “This is about Clint?”

Natasha just looked at her.

“I honestly don’t know what you’re getting at.” Darcy defended, but she still took the other woman’s hand to get off the floor.

“Aren’t you two getting coffee when he gets back from his trip?” Jane asked.

Darcy shrugged, “Yeah? I’m still missing the point.” They’d had coffee together before. She failed to see why this seemed to be a talking point.

Natasha sighed, “Darcy. He likes you. He was asking you out.”

“Wait...he was?”

“Asking you out for coffee? That’s him asking you out on a date.” Natasha clarified.

“But we’ve had coffee at my place a couple of times when he came by to check in. I thought this was just him returning the favor.”

The redhead huffed an amused breath through her nose, “He’s not great at this sort of thing, so I can see how you may be confused.”

“Well, shit.”

“Anyways, I came by to say that if you’re not interested in him, you should tell him now. Don’t let him get his hopes up and then hurt him.”

“Oh, well...I mean, it’s not like I’m not interested.”

“You are?”

“Um, have you seen his ass? I bet you could bounce a quarter off that thing!”

Jane laughed and Natasha smiled. Score one for Darcy. The Black Widow didn’t seem like she was going to kill her. For now, at least.

Natasha crossed her arms, “Obviously I get it if things don’t work out. It’s unfair to assume that you are solely responsible for the success or failure of anything you two get into -- I mean, Clint can definitely be an idiot sometimes. But consider this my version of the shovel talk.”

“Noted.” Darcy nodded her head seriously.

Natasha gave Darcy a terse nod of her head and a satisfied half smile, before turning to leave. 

“We’ll get drinks soon, ladies.” She threw out just before heading out the door.

Darcy turned to Jane, “I’m alive, right? She didn’t kill me just now and I’m imagining all the rest of this?”

Jane giggled, “Nope, still alive and kickin’.”

“She’s scary.”

“Yep.”

“But she didn’t kill me.”

“Nope.”

“And she invited us out for drinks.”

“Yep.”

“Okay.” Darcy shook her head, “Just making sure I’ve got everything straight here.” She glanced at Jane, “Back to work?”

“Back to work.” Jane confirmed.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi my lovelies!
> 
> For the record, all of you with your Kudos and Comments and Bookmarks completely make my day! Hugs and various forms of internet-ey affection for all of you for being so truly wonderful! 

When Clint returned from his trip, he texted Darcy just like he said he would and they went and got their coffee. Darcy felt relieved now, knowing this indeed was a date. They sat and talked in the coffee shop for nearly three hours, him telling her stories about growing up in the circus, and her telling him stories about her dad. He never pressured her to talk about him, he just sat and listened, gently encouraging her to share her stories, which she thought was why it was so easy to do so.

When they left the coffee shop, he walked with her back to the tower -- she had some work to finish with Jane -- and he asked her to dinner that weekend. Darcy gave herself a stern talking to in the mirror while she was doing her makeup before their dinner date -- telling herself that she _wasn’t_ going to sleep with him that night. She was going to be a classy lady and keep her classy lady parts to herself until the third date like an acceptable grown up.

It took all of her willpower to keep that promise to herself. Especially when Clint kissed her at the door to her apartment, making her knees wobbly like a dewy-eyed school girl. It took everything she had not to jump him right there in the hallway, and drag him to bed. But somehow she managed it, and they’d arranged to go out again two nights later. Darcy was proud of herself for exercising control and told herself that after the next date she could finally give in and sleep with him.

But then the whole Avengers team had been called out on a mission on the west coast, and Darcy might have died just a little inside.

Jane invited Darcy up to her place for drinks after work. And halfway through a bottle of tequila, there was a knock at the door.

“Pepper!” Jane cried as if she’d won the lottery.

Darcy lifted her head awkwardly from where she was hanging upside down off the end of Jane’s couch. Sure enough, there stood Pepper Pots, in Lulu Lemon leggings and a baggy t-shirt Darcy could only assume was Tony’s.

The other woman lifted a bottle of expensive-looking whiskey, “I brought reinforcements!”

“Yay!” Darcy cried, just before she slid off the couch and landed awkwardly on the back of her shoulders. After a bit of finagling, she managed to right herself -- her head only spinning slightly.

"So what are we drinking to?" Pepper asked, settling herself on the couch, beside where Darcy now sat on the floor.

"Sexual frustration," Darcy said, lifting the tequila bottle to her lips to take another healthy swig.

"You and Clint?" Pepper confirmed, cracking the seal on the bottle of whiskey.

"How did you know about that?" Darcy asked incredulously, twisting around to look at the older woman.

Pepper just looked at Darcy, her expression completely deadpan, "Please."

"Face it, Darce," Jane said, bringing a plate of nachos and a half-empty bottle of moscato in from the kitchen, "Your private life is private no more. I told you living here was like living in a snowglobe. Everyone stares at you from the outside, and shit is constantly falling on your head."

"What?" Darcy asked, as Pepper laughed out loud.

Jane shrugged and took a drink, "Okay, so I guess that analogy worked better in my head. But you get my point."

Darcy thought about it for another minute. Jane was right. Living in the tower seemed to mean that everyone knew everyone else's business. One more reason why she was glad she lived in her own place, despite the commute. But apparently that didn't stop everyone from knowing her business anyways. Though, she figured it would be much worse if she did live here.

“At least you’re not dating Tony. He tends to make it a point to broadcast his business -- which often means mine as well -- at top volume, for everyone and the press to hear.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Darcy agreed tipping the bottle up to her lips.

“Or Thor. I love that man, but secrets aren’t exactly his strongest skill. And he has pretty much one speaking volume: loud.”

“I’ll double drink to that. I’ve heard far too much from your bedroom as it is.”

“Ooh. Sorry.”

“It’s cool. I’ll just drink until my brains ooze out of my ears. That’ll fix all my problems in one fell swoop.”

“Here here!” Pepper seconded, clinking her bottle with Darcy’s.

Darcy’s phone beeped just then, and she checked the screen.

“No! It’s Clint!”

“What? Why is that a bad thing?” Pepper asked at the same time Jane asked, “What’d he say?”

Darcy answered Jane’s question first, “He said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ And it’s bad because, now I’m gonna wanna text him back, but I’m drunk.” Darcy tilted her head to the side, judging how sloshy she felt, “Okay, well drunk-ish. But still, I’m gonna want to text him back and I’m seriously sexually frustrated right now.”

Jane got to the point, “She’s afraid she’s gonna drunk sext him.”

“Ah! I see.” Pepper nodded in understanding.

Darcy sank down lower against the couch, and stared at her phone, then quickly tossed it at Jane. “Here. Take it from me. Keep me from doing bad things.”

“Will do.” Jane promised, tucking the phone into the pocket of her sweatpants.

“Now, I propose a drunken viewing of _The Breakfast Club._ ” Darcy said, grabbing the remote to scroll through the menu of movies on the tv.

“I second that!” Pepper agreed.

“I’ll get the popcorn.” Jane smiled, standing somewhat unsteadily and heading for the kitchen.

*

When Darcy woke the next morning, it felt as though the sunlight shining in from the wide living room windows was stabbing her directly in the retinas.

“Ugh, somebody turn the sun off.” She groaned and rolled over, trying to block out the annoying light. She stopped when she came face to face with Pepper's pedicured toes. Darcy sat up quickly, then paused while her head throbbed, her stomach reeled, and she regained control of her gag reflex.

She and Pepper had apparently passed out tucked opposite of each other on the plush couch. Darcy spotted Jane's feet poking out from under the throw blanket on the floor on other side of the coffee table.

Holy shit. It had been a while since she had been that drunk. Darcy pulled her knees up and leaned forward to try and stop some of the spinning that was currently happening in her head.

What the hell had happened last night? Why had they drunk so much? Why hadn't Jarvis stopped them?

Darcy lifted her head and looked around. She spotted her phone on the ground beside her and picked it up.

Four percent battery. She would have to track down her charger before it died. The clock on her lock screen indicated that it was nearly eleven in the morning.

Wait.

Why did she have her phone?

Hadn't she given it to Jane for safe keeping -- to keep her from texting...fuck.

She unlocked her phone and pulled up her recent messages.

She had two new texts from Clint,

3:31 am **Talk to you tomorrow, beautiful:)**

10:28 am **Morning. How's the hangover?**

And one from Tony,

3:01 am **Stop with the dirty texts to Barton. He’s on my team for Jenga, and you're breaking his concentration.**

 _Crap, crap, crap!_ She thought, quickly scrolling back through her messages.

  **Clint;) -- (212-555-6351):**

10:03 pm **Hey, what's up?**

>1:12 am **Heyy you;)**

1:15 am **Hey yourself**

>1:19 am **What chaa up to .?**

1:26 am **Got some down time with the team. We have to lay a little low here for a couple of days.**

>1:32 am **Booooo!,n**

1:37 am **Yup**.

1:42 am **So I've been bored.**

1:45 am **Thinkin' about you;)**

>1:53 am **thsts weert**

1:58 am **What? Lol.**

>2:00 am **im'm a littlle drnuk**

>2:01 am ***drunk**

>2:02 am **got this shit. Ffuck auttocorect**

>2:02 am **!!!!!!!!.!!**

2:04 am **Well that explains some of the typing mistakes, lol.**

2:09 am **You okay?**

2:17 am **Darcy?**

>2:20 am **yeah I'm h goood**

>2:21 am **janesjust tryinf to getmyy phne**

>2:22 am **made her prom ise tok eep my phoe so I wouldnt txt you dirtty things**

2:25 am **You were going to text me dirty things?**

>2:29 am **Justl ike how I wanna jump you suuper ba d**

2:33 am **You do?**

>2:37 am **Ffucking duhh!**

>2:37 am **!!!!!**

2:39 am **Lol, how much have you had to drink?**

>2:41 am **like mostof thi sz bottle of teqquifka**

2:43 am **Most of a bottle of tequila?**

2:44 am **Darcy, you should probably stop.**

>2:47 am **andbsomeof janrs wine**

2:49 am **Lol. Just be safe.**

2:49 am **Don't forget to drink a lot of water.**

Here she had sent him a picture of herself drinking water.

>2:53 am **see. I canfolow directions;)**

2:55 am **You're adorable:)**

>2:58 am **helll yeah iam !! !**

>2:59 am **Andyo u havent evrnn seen me naked yeet!**

** New Message -- Tony Stark -- (212-555-8734) : **

3:01 am **Stop with the dirty texts to Barton. He’s on my team for Jenga, and you're breaking his concentration.**

**Clint;) -- (212-555-6351):**

>3:03 am **tell ton y to shovve it**

3:05 am **Yeah. He's an asshole. Ignore him.**

>3:06 am **alreadyyy on it**

>3:08 am **com e bacccckkkkkk! Im sexuALLY FRystrabed ri ght now**

3:10 am **You are?**

3:11 am **Huh. Well, I think I can probably help with that, once I get home ;)**

>3:13 am **oh crap pEPper pa ssed out**

3:14 am **Okay, go take care of her.**

3:15 am **Make sure she has water.**

>3:18 am **Gotit**

3:19 am **Good.**

>3:22 am **improbsbly about to pass o ut tooo**

3:24 am **Okay, be safe.**

>3:27 am **.!**

3:31 am **Talk to you tomorrow, beautiful:)**

10:28 am **Morning. How's the hangover?**

“Oh my god.” Darcy dropped her head back against the arm of the couch, and wondered what massive transgression she must have committed in a former life to deserve such terrible, horrible, mortifying karma. With the conversation as a reminder, she now vaguely remembered body-checking Jane to get her phone back. She would have to apologize for that once Jane woke up.

Darcy reluctantly picked up her phone and texted back.

**Clint;) -- (212-555-6351):**

>10:59 am **Oh my god. I’m so sorry.**

>10:59 am **Please disregard everything I said last night.**

11:02 am **Even the part about you being sexually frustrated?**

> 11:03 am **Omg. Especially that part.**

11:04 am **Hmm. Because I was thinking I could maybe do something about that as soon as I get back tomorrow.**

>11:06 am **Tomorrow?**

11:08 am **Just got the call. We should be back by dinner time tomorrow.**

11:09 am **So I’ll pick you up around 7? We can get dinner and then head back to my place for a little dessert.**

>11:11 am **Smooth.**

11:14 am **I try.**

11:14 am **I hate to see such a beautiful lady in distress.**

>11:16 am **Well, you are all about saving those damsels, aren’t you.**

11:17 am **Exactly.**

11:18 am **Take some Tylenol and get some super greasy food.**

>11:20 am **I’ll do that. See you tomorrow, Clint.**

11:21 am **See you tomorrow, Darcy ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, all you delightful readers!
> 
> This one's got some serious feels tucked in the middle, and we've got some serious Darcy/Clint cuteness too:)
> 
> All of you commenting and leaving me feedback - you help me write faster, lol! I totally appreciate all the love ;) <3

Darcy rolled over in Clint’s bed, and stretched out. He was already gone for the day -- he had an early team training session at the tower. But Darcy didn’t have to be back at the lab until later in the morning. Jane had been up all night working, but had gotten into one of her occasional moods where she couldn’t think with anyone else around, so Darcy had left Jane to work through the night. Lately, she had been pulling even stranger hours than usual. The last month had been a crazy whirlwind of activity around the tower.

Steve had gotten back about a week earlier, with no sign of his long lost friend. But he did bring with him, a man named Sam Wilson. Sam was a former Army paratrooper, and now fought and flew with a kickass custom wing-pack (that Darcy was practically drooling to get her hands on) under the codename “Falcon.” 

When she wasn’t in the lab, working bizarre hours with Jane, she was usually with Clint. That is, unless he got called away on a mission, or Doctor Doom had some new roboticized monstrosity attacking some portion of the city -- which happened frustratingly often.

But whenever that happened, Darcy would try and wait up for him to return when she could. And when he got back, he would find her either still up watching Netflix -- in which case he would often take her back to bed and make love to her until they both couldn’t move. Or if she was already passed out on her couch when he got back, he would pick her up and tuck her into bed.

Last night was one of the former, and Darcy woke feeling just a little sore in all the right places.

But now she had to get up. Jane had gotten stuck in her research for weeks and it was driving her absolutely nuts. To the point that, so long as Jane was in a state where she could be working around others, Thor spent much more time in the lab, trying to distract Jane from her frustration. Or he spent his time there trying to help Darcy in getting Jane to sleep or eat when she needed. Jane's stubborn nature basically meant that once she realized she might not be able to figure out this issue, she became completely obsessed with the project.

Others had taken to dropping by -- quite literally in Clint's case, since he had a habit of stalking the air vents in the ceilings. But Bruce and Tony had been spending even more time in Jane's lab. Her project had intrigued all the Science! nerds, and like Jane, once they found a problem it was hard for them to just let it go. So any time they had an extra minute or two they were swinging by to throw their two cents into Jane’s notes and ask questions. Darcy wasn’t sure if Jane hated or appreciated the extra stimulation, but she figured it was a little bit of both. But sometimes, when Darcy could tell that the extra cooks in the kitchen were driving Jane crazy, she would kick everybody out before Jane had a fit.

“I don’t know why you won’t consider launching a probe at this thing.” Tony said, sauntering into Jane’s lab while taking a sip from his coffee. His left hand was bandaged haphazardly.

“What’s with the mummy hand, Tony?” Darcy asked, rolling her chair around to face him.

“Eh. Dum-E’s got a defect in his claw sensors. Keeps dropping things before I have a chance to grab onto them completely.” He flexed his injured hand and winced slightly, “Dropped a mug this morning, and I cut my hand cleaning it up.”

“Well look at that. Tony Stark does clean up after himself.”

“Occasionally, and only when I'm not being sued in the aftermath.”

"Nice."

"I can't launch a probe at it, Tony." Jane explained, still hunched over at her computer screen, "First of all, the cost of organizing and launching something like that would be upwards of like, three billion dollars -- for which you, my thoughtful employer and investor, would be footing the bill. Besides that, even if we had the technology to have the probe travel at the speed of light, it would take about twenty-six thousand years to get there. And as it stands we currently only have the technology to travel at around thirty-five thousand miles per hour, which would take -- “ Jane looked up to do the math in her head, “-- roughly, five hundred and eight billion years to reach Sagittarius A, where this black hole is.”

“Hmmm.” The look on Tony’s face conveyed that he was most likely trying to figure out a way around these facts. 

"Here.While you’re busy trying to find a way to defy the basic laws of the universe, let me take a look at that." Bruce offered, motioning towards Tony’s hand and breaking him from his Sciencey! scheming. Darcy opened the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out the first aid kit, and she handed it to Bruce, who settled in to look at Tony's half-assed bandaging job.

Jane sighed, and spun around in her chair, "Darcy, will you hand me the folder over there? I wanna look up the...uh..."

"The gravitational wave data?"

"Yeah. That."

"You think of something new, Foster?" Tony asked, then whined when Bruce prodded at his injured hand.

"Hold still, Tony." Bruce ordered.

"Ouch!"

Jane shook her head as Darcy stood and handed her the folder she’d asked for, "No. I'm just trying to see if I've missed something here."

Darcy sighed and sat back down, "Jane, you checked all of that data a million times yesterday. You literally stared at that chart on the fourth page for six whole hours."

"I know, but it's gotta be here somewhere."

"Janey..."

Just then, the Assemble Alert sounded throughout the lab.

"Goddamnit." Darcy dropped her head back in frustration.

“Come on, Jolly Green. Slap a Band-Aid on it, and let’s go!” Tony shouted over the noise.

Bruce quickly finished up with Tony as the Alert died down. He tilted his head up, “Jarvis, what’s the situation?”

_”It seems to be Doctor Doom again, Doctor Banner. Some sort of giant mechanical squid in the harbor.”_

“Delightful.” Bruce deadpanned, and he started cleaning up the first aid supplies around him so he could head out.

A moment later there was a banging sound above them and the grate on the air vent flew open. Clint dropped down from the ceiling to land in a graceful crouch beside Jane’s desk.

“Hey Foster.” He said, nodding to Jane, who didn’t even look up but only grunted in response. “Darce.” He crossed to Darcy’s desk.

“Hey you.” Darcy replied, standing to give him a kiss. “Be safe, okay?” She said when they pulled apart.

“I will.” Clint smiled, “Hell, if this one’s anything like Doom’s last scheme, we’ll be home before dinner.”

“Don’t get cocky. That’s how people get hurt.” Darcy said seriously.

Clint schooled his face into an overly-serious expression, “Right. Got it.” 

Darcy laughed and kissed him again, “Go. Go save the city from metallic calamari.”

“Will do.” Clint gave her a mock salute then headed out of the room.

When he had gone Darcy flopped back down into her chair and sighed heavily.  
“Waiting’s the worst.”

“At least your guy didn’t make you wait while he disappeared into space for two years.” Jane responded, finally looking up from her readouts.

“True,” Darcy nodded. “But still...”

Jane gave an understanding nod, “Yeah. Waiting’s the worst.”

*  
_“Hey, Princess.”_

_Darcy looked up from her comic book at her dad, who had slid back out from under the car in front of her._

_He held out a greasy hand, “Can you hand me the new release bearing?”_

_“Sure,” she said, setting her comic aside the find the part he was looking for. She found the thick metal band and handed it to him._

_“Come ’ere, Princess. I’ll show you how to put this on under here.”_

_Darcy grinned, and quickly scooted in beside him underneath the raised front of the car. Her dad was so proud of his 1968 Alfa Romeo Spider, and he was gradually teaching her how to take care of it._

_Her dad showed her where to connect the release bearing and let her tighten it herself. When Darcy finished she grinned wide, and turned her head to say something to her dad. But he was gone._

_She scooted herself out from under the car and stood to look around._

_“Dad!” She shouted, “Daddy!”_

_She turned around to find the the car was gone, along with her dad’s tool box, and her stack of comic books. In its place was a bottle of cheap whiskey -- the kind her dad had started drinking after her mom had died -- tipped over and spilling out onto the ground._

_Her dad had never been an angry drunk -- far from it. He would get nostalgic and tell her rambling stories of his childhood, and the Good Old Days with her mom. But strangely, as much as she asked about it, he would never tell Darcy the story of how the two of them met._

_Darcy supposed his demeanor when he drank had helped contribute to his death. He was never mean or violent, so it hadn’t seemed like such a problem at the time. In the end it had been a heart attack -- a cardiomyopathy, the doctors had said. They explained that the years of drinking had led to high blood pressure, which had helped to weaken the walls of his heart._

_Darcy ran over and knelt to pick up the bottle. But when she turned it over, the label was different. This wasn’t the cheap stuff her dad had drunk. This was top shelf whiskey -- much more expensive than he could’ve ever afforded._

Darcy woke up with tears in her eyes and an all too familiar ache in her chest. She sat up, accidentally knocking the blanket to the ground, and took in her surroundings. She had fallen asleep on the couch in Jane’s lab -- Jane had finally passed out at her desk around three in the afternoon and Darcy hadn’t been able to move her since Thor was gone. So Darcy had decided to catch a catnap, before Jane woke again and inevitably ended up pulling another thirty hour bender.

Jane was still snoozing soundly at her desk.

“Jarvis, what time is it?” Darcy asked quietly, shaking the anxiety from her limbs that had been left there by her dream. 

_“It is twelve past four in the afternoon, Miss Lewis.”_

Not yet dinner time. Hopefully the team would be back before too long. But, in the meantime…

A few short minutes later found Darcy outside the frosted glass doors of Tony’s workshop.

“Hey, J-man. Mind letting me in again?”

 _“Right away, Miss Lewis.”_ Jarvis replied, and a half a second later she heard the door click as it unlocked for her. She pushed it open and slipped into the room. 

Darcy was inspecting a holographic model of Tony’s latest redesign for the arc-reactor when she felt something tap her leg and she nearly jumped ten feet in the air. She pressed a hand to her chest as her breathing slowed again, and she finally noticed what had startled her. 

One of Tony’s bots -- Dum-E, he called this one -- had rolled up silently beside her and was holding a flat head screwdriver in it’s claw.

“Hey there, little guy.” She said, leaning over to stroke a hand across it’s metal “neck.”

Dum-E bobbed its claw to indicate that it wanted her to take the screwdriver. But the moment that Darcy moved her hand to try to do just that, Dum-E’s claw released and the screwdriver hit the ground.

“That’s right. Tony mentioned you were having some trouble with your claw sensor.” Dum-E bobbed its claw in acknowledgement. 

“You want me to take a look at that?” Dum-E bobbed its claw again.

Darcy picked up the screwdriver, sat down on the floor in front of the bot, and got to work.

Almost an hour later, she was finishing up when Jarvis spoke up again.

_“Miss Lewis, I’m sorry to interrupt, but the Avengers team is on their way back to the tower. Sir’s arrival time is estimated at just under seven minutes.”_

“Oh, thanks J-Man!” Darcy rushed to put away the tools she used to fix Dum-E’s claw sensors, and was able to make it back into Jane’s lab with time to spare before Jarvis announced that the team was back and ordering massive amounts of pizza up on the common floor to celebrate a fully successful op.

Darcy called Thor down to get Jane up, who finally woke with the promise of greasy pizza. And once she made it upstairs with the others, Clint quickly found her and pulled her in for a knee-knocking kiss.

Darcy definitely hated waiting, but it made it so much more worth it when they came home safe and sound.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> So this chapter took an annoyingly long time to get together:( But I have the next chapter almost finished so that should be up very shortly!

Christmas that year ended up being one of the best holidays Darcy had experienced in years. She had even been able to forget some of her sadness of spending the holiday without her father for the first time in her life. Things had been quiet for a couple of weeks, and the team was enjoying the downtime. Steve, who had still been fairly down in the past few weeks since returning without Bucky, had brightened up a bit when everyone had gotten together to decorate the giant fir tree in the living room on the common floor.

Several of them had gone out as a group to pick a tree, which Thor had knocked down neatly with Mjolnir. Then he and Tony had flown the tree back to the tower. Thor was still fascinated by the entire Christmas season and all its various traditions, so he was usually the most enthusiastic about everything. They had decorated the tree with twinkle lights, and fancy ornaments that Pepper had bought for them, while listening to Bing Crosby croon about counting his blessings and white Christmases.

As it turned out, Sam made amazing Christmas cookies, which they all decorated while watching both the cartoon and live versions of _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ , back to back.

Darcy had gotten Clint a customized black leather archery glove and armguard, which he had loved. And Clint had gotten her a beautiful sterling silver necklace with a pendant that looked like an arrow shot through a heart.

The slow days continued up to the end of December, and Tony decided to throw a huge New Year’s bash to celebrate.

The party was held in the event center on the third floor of the tower. Hundreds of people were invited, and of course every detail was perfectly executed being that Pepper’s team of people were behind the shindig.

The whole room was bathed in colored lights, and there was a giant dance floor in the center of the room flanked by a stage on one side, where a DJ was spinning away, and seating on all other sides. Low tables and couches where people sat and talked, and drank as serving staff circled the room making sure that champagne and other alcohol was in ready supply. Additionally there were five fully stocked bars around the edges of the room -- all of which made for a fairly low-key Stark party. 

Darcy, Jane, and Natasha had been treated by Pepper’s personal stylist, and they had spent a good chunk of the day getting pampered and coiffed. Darcy was currently wearing shoes and jewelry that, together, cost more than her first car.

Clint and the other guys had come buy to walk them down the the party (Natasha was apparently going with Sam, but she refused to say if they were dating or not). Clint had pulled Darcy close to tell her how great she looked, and to plant a kiss on her forehead.

The party had been great. Darcy laughed and drank and danced the night away. Clint wasn't fond of dancing, at least while sober, but as soon as he got a few drinks in him, Darcy got him on the dance floor for a few songs. And everyone counted down together to midnight. But somewhere around two in the morning, Darcy had had enough of everyone else. All she wanted anymore was Clint and her alone.

She sidled up to where he stood chatting to Sam and Steve beside one of the many bars around the room. “Hey, you wanna get out of here?” She asked, flashing the other two men a tipsy smile as he turned towards her.

Clint set his empty tumbler on the bar-top, “You read my mind,” He replied, leaning in close. His breath tickled her ear and set her skin alight with sensation. A shiver of desire ran up her spine. 

“Let’s go.” She grinned salaciously while rubbing up against him.

"I don't know if I'll make it all the way back home if you keep doing that, babe."

"God, home’s so faaaarrr.”

“Come on,” He said, grabbing her hand.

“Where are we going?” She asked.

They rounded the corner and after he pressed the button to call the elevator, he pressed her against the wall to kiss her hard. When they pulled apart for air, he said, “I never use it, but I’ve still got an apartment here.”

“Oooh,” Darcy raised a suggestive eyebrow, “Lead the way, loverboy.”

Clint laughed, and pulled her into the elevator, which had arrived by then. And as soon as the doors had closed behind them, he had hiked her up into his arms and she locked her legs around his waist. 

“Don’t...you have...to press the...button?” She asked between fevered kisses.

Clint pulled away, long enough to say, “Jarvis?”

 _”Sending the elevator to your floor, Agent Barton.”_ Came Jarvis’ voice from the speakers in the ceiling of the lift.

“Thanks Jarvis!” Darcy replied when she pulled away to catch her breath.

Soon enough they landed on the right floor, and Clint was carrying Darcy down the hall, his mouth practically glued to her neck. He got Jarvis to unlock the door, and the next thing Darcy knew she was laid across the end of a couch, her hips propped up on the arm of it, while Clint pushed up the skirt of her dress and worked her panties down her legs. He settled himself on his knees, between her legs and she could feel his breath hitting her sensitive wet flesh in short, heavy puffs. 

“Happy new year, Darce.” He said, voice laced with plenty of smirk.

“Happy new yea-aahh!” Darcy started to say, before his mouth was against her, making her hips buck with the sensation.

He licked and sucked at her cunt, while she pressed herself as close to him as she could manage, angling her hips so he could hit all the best places. She cried out when he pressed a finger into her. She begged him for more, and he quickly added a second finger -- pistoning them into her as he circled her clit with his tongue. Darcy could feel when he smirked against her, just a second before he sucked hard on her clit, and she came harder, gripping the edges of the couch cushions tightly.

Once she had come back down from her orgasm, she sat up on the arm of the couch. Clint stood, and Darcy reached for his belt buckle and quickly divested him of his pants and briefs.

“Turn around,” He whispered in her ear. Darcy grinned, then did what he asked, leaning forward over the arm this time, her ass up in the air. She felt him behind her, then he was pressing into her pussy -- stretching her walls until he was fully seated inside her.

“Oh god!” Darcy cried, reveling in the feel of him.

Clint leaned forward, pressing his chest against her back. And when he moved she could feel every inch of him, filling her, completing her. She dug her fingers into the fabric of the couch as he began pushing into her and pulling out again, lighting her up with warmth.

"Fuckin' hell, babe," He remarked, tightening his grip on her hips, "You feel so good...take me so good. Shit."

That was the thing about Clint, he was a bit of a dirty talker, and Darcy kind of loved it. Especially when he would whisper those dirty things in her ear, in this low growl that made her wetter than Florida in a hurricane.

He was doing just that now, as he pounded into her. Her hips pressing against the arm of the sofa, and she was suddenly glad that it was as plush and padded as it was -- otherwise she would have ended up with some pretty decent bruises from this encounter.

Darcy felt her pleasure intensify as her peak drew closer, and she had started making small whimpers each time Clint pumped deep into her.

"Come on, babe, come for me." He whispered against the skin of her neck, then proceeded press kisses and gentle bites down the length of her back. "Come all over me."

He reached one hand in front of her to circle against her clit, and a second later she was gone -- coming hard as stars burst in front of her eyes. And before she had even come down she felt him coming hot and wet inside of her.

"Well fuck." Darcy said after she had caught her breath.

"Happy fucking new year to us." Clint added, shifting to pull out of her.

"Speaking of which," Darcy began, turning around to pull on his tie he'd never taken off, "I've got a few resolutions I want to discuss with you..."

"Oh yeah?"

"Maybe you should take me into the bedroom so I can tell you all about them."

"Well I am a goal-oriented person after all."

*

Darcy woke with a start. 

She was in Clint’s little-used bed at his tower apartment, and her head was throbbing in a way that told her she had drank a bit too much last night. Darcy glanced over to the clock -- It was only three forty-two in the morning -- then over to where Clint was sprawled out and snoring, half uncovered by the sheets, and climbed out of bed. She found a t-shirt and pair of boxer shorts in Clint’s dresser and after pulling them on she headed for the kitchen where she popped a couple of ibuprofen for her headache, and downed a glass of water.

Darcy leaned against the marble countertop and thought about the dream that had woken her. It was the same dream she’d been having a lot lately -- helping her dad to fix his beloved car, then realizing in a panic that he was gone, only to see a bottle of whiskey left spilling onto the ground. Except this time, for some weird reason, after she had picked the bottle up and turned it over, she had felt a tap on her leg and turned around. Dum-E had been sitting there, holding a screwdriver in his claw. That was when Darcy had woken up.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep for a while, but maybe she could at least be productive. She set her empty water glass in the sink and left the apartment, padding down the hall to the elevator in her bare feet. And soon she was back in Tony’s workshop.

She poked around a little to see what her was working on, and she found a half-finished prototype for a new set of gauntlet repulsors. After taking a look at the way he had wired the main mechanism, she noticed that he had two of the wires crossed in a way that would definitely cause a short circuit before long. Not a good idea with a controlled explosive device like the repulsor.

Darcy grabbed a screwdriver and got to work to fix Tony’s mistake.

Not quite an hour later, though, she was interrupted by a loud voice.

“What the fuck, Lewis?”

Darcy looked up, startled. Tony was standing in the doorway of the workshop, his dress shirt untucked and partially unbuttoned, and his tie was tied around his forehead and hanging off the side. He still held a bottle of expensive whiskey in his hand.

“Oh hey,” Darcy looked around her at the mess of pieces and parts. She had meant to just fix the small wiring issue, but she had gotten a little carried away in figuring out how the whole mechanism worked and fired. “This looks bad, doesn’t it?”

“What the hell are you doing to my gauntlet?”

Darcy gestured to the screwdriver in her hand, “I’m fixing it.”

“Fixing-- It was fine!” Tony waved his bottle in the air as he gestured wildly.

“Actually, you had a wiring issue that would definitely have ended up short circuiting the thing. I figured you didn’t like third degree burns.”

“I had-- What!? How do you know that!?” Tony looked pissed.

Darcy shrugged, “I’m good with mechanical stuff. I’m the one who fixes all of Jane’s shit.”

“Wait...”

“Yeah. I fixed your coffee machine.”

His expression went from mad to mildly impressed, “You...How...Dum-E’s claw sensor?”

“Yeah, that was me too.”

“I just...Wait. How did you get in?”

“I don’t know. Jarvis just lets me in.”

“But he-- I mean...You tore my gauntlet apart!” He seemed like he couldn’t decide whether or not to be angry at her for her sneaking around and fixing his things.

“Relax, Tony. I’ll have it put back together by the morning.”

“I just...I am way too drunk for this.” He shook his head and took another unnecessary swig from his bottle of whiskey, “I’m gonna go pass out upstairs. Make sure that thing fucking works when you put it back together.”

“Don’t worry, dude. It will.”

“Okay. Whatever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The necklace Clint gave Darcy for Christmas:  
> http://m.tiffany.com/explore/wall-street/paloma-picasso-loving-heart-arrow-pendant-36343206?utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=PLA+-+Silver+Jewelry+Campaign&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=|pcrid|87335652373|pkw||pmt||pdv|m|&gclid=CNyrx9ybucsCFQMQaQodh4ELfA


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies:)
> 
> Told you Chapter 9 was not far behind!
> 
> This chapter is super short -- apologies for that, but very exciting plotty things are forthcoming;)

Tony had been slightly shocked to see that every fix Darcy had made in his lab was still working and improving on his own designs. At first, he had been pissed about it.

( _"I have a very expensive engineering degree from MIT! You're just a poli-sci major!"_

_"Now you're just being rude, Tony."_

_"But--but--but just...How!?"_ )

But soon he grew to accept it, and he would occasionally -- though, still very reluctantly -- ask for her help or opinion on certain projects.

As for her love life, things were still difficult for Darcy whenever Clint was gone for work. She had figured, for a long time, that it would get easier at some point. That it had to. But if it ever did, she hadn’t reached that point yet. But she knew that as hard as it was for her to wait, it was twice as hard for him, in the field, getting shot at for his paycheck.

Darcy, Jane, and Pepper had formed a sort of club almost. They would get together and drink or watch movies on the nights when the whole team was away. It helped distract them from their worrying, and gave them a sort of support group to lean on who really understood what the others were feeling.

It wasn’t always so hard. If the Assemble call was nearby, they would often sit together and watch the live coverage on the news. They would joke and laugh about the ridiculous commentary the anchors provided, throwing in cheesy jokes and one-liners about the team. Sometimes when it got to be too much for any of them, they would head down to Jane’s lab to try and distract themselves with other things.

Valentine’s day was in a week, but Clint had to leave in two days for a long mission, overseas. Darcy hated seeing him go on long missions even more -- not because she had to miss him for longer, but because it meant that everyday he was out there was another day he was risking getting hurt or killed. 

But to make up for missing Valentine’s day, Clint had promised to take her out early.

They ended up at an amazing steakhouse that Pepper had recommended -- dim lighting and a piano player in the corner -- such a romantic cliché that they both had a bit of a tough time not laughing at the whole thing. But the food was incredible, and the wine was delicious.

They were finishing a slice of tiramisu for dessert when it happened. 

A loud bang from outside the restaurant that shook the whole building.

“What the hell was that?” Darcy asked, putting down her fork.

“I don’t know, but my guess isn’t good.” Clint replied, standing to unholster one of what Darcy guessed was probably at least three hidden weapons..

Then suddenly there was another loud explosion -- this one that blasted through the wall of the restaurant, sending plaster and glass everywhere.

“Get down!” Clint shouted diving around the table to knock Darcy to the ground and shielded her with his body.

A second later, when most of the dust had started to clear, he helped her up. There was a huge hole in the wall of the restaurant -- almost the entire side of  the building was gone. And outside, people were running and screaming through the streets, as more explosions sounded nearby.

“Stay here. Get under the table and don’t move!” Clint demanded.

“No!” Darcy began to protest, “I have to --”

“Darcy, please!” Clint begged, “Please, stay here! I have to go deal with this, and I won’t be able to focus if I don’t know you’re okay.”

Darcy looked around at the pandemonium breaking out everywhere, and sighed. “Okay, fine.”

“Thank you.” Clint pulled her in to kiss her forehead, then started to go.

“Wait!” Darcy grabbed his arm to pull him back, then rose up a little to kiss him on the mouth. It was urgent and nervous, but it grounded her. “Please, don’t be stupid.” She begged when they broke the kiss. 

“I won’t.” He promised, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. Then he was gone, halfway across the restaurant and climbing up piles of debris into the streets.

Darcy watched him go, but then another explosion rattled the building, sending chunks of plaster falling from the ceiling. She dropped back to the ground and crawled underneath the table. Around her many other patrons were doing the same, and taking shelter under their tables or hiding behind chairs.

Long minutes passed, and the streets were still in chaos outside. People were running in every direction, trying to get around the large piles of brick and mortar that blocked the streets and sidewalks. Something or things kept zooming by outside, shooting at people and buildings every so often. That was when Darcy noticed him. A man who had to be in at least his seventies, was struggling to navigate his way over a pile of debris with a cane.

 _Crap. Sorry, Clint._ She thought as she crawled back out from under the table.

She ran across the restaurant, ducking when some more plaster was shaken loose from the ceiling, and climbed through the hole in the wall. She was suddenly extremely glad she’d worn flats that night. 

Darcy helped the man scale the debris, and got him to relative safety down in a subway station where many others were also taking shelter. She had headed back up onto the street and was quickly sidetracked by a young mom with a baby in a stroller and a toddler in her arms. Darcy urged the woman to abandon the stroller -- there was just no way they would get it around all the rubble. So the woman picked up her baby, while Darcy took the toddler, and together they ran for shelter in the subway station. As soon as they were safe, Darcy headed back up. She knew there had to be more panicked civilians trying to find cover.

Once she was back on the street, she took a moment to look around, and take in the bedlam around her. There were dozens of metal pods flying overhead, that would occasionally let out a wide spray of bullets at the surrounding buildings or sections of the street. Even farther up she could see, Iron Man and Thor crossing overhead, blasting the pods out of the sky. She saw a flash of green and knew that the Hulk was up there somewhere too.

Darcy picked her way across the street, sidestepping a fallen pod, but she stopped suddenly when something caught her eye. Sticking out of the side of the pod was an arrow with purple fletching on the end. It was one of Clint’s explosive arrows, already detonated.

Darcy knelt down to run her fingers along the arrow. She looked back into the sky to try and locate Clint’s maroon and black Hawkeye uniform, just as a wave of shots fired somewhere around her.

Suddenly she felt something sharp bite into her side, and she fell over. She clasped a hand to her right side, and felt the warm stickiness of blood on her fingers.

 _Shit,_ She thought as everything started to go hazy, _Clint’s gonna kill me..._

Darcy tried to stand, and swayed violently. The street swam in front of her eyes, and she reached out blindly for anything to hold onto. She felt the cool metal of a car beneath her fingers and she leaned heavily onto the hood as she tried to get her bearings. She closed her eyes and took a breath, ignoring the sharp stabbing in her side as she did so, and when she opened her eyes again she steeled herself as much as possible.

She was only a few blocks away from the tower, but she knew she probably couldn’t make it that far before passing out. She needed to get somewhere she could be found quickly if she did black out -- which seemed a real possibility with every dizzying breath. Darcy looked around to find the restaurant again. Only about a block away, but it seemed like miles in her current state.

Slowly, she started to head in that direction, pausing to catch herself on an overturned taxi several yards away. Darcy heard another wave of shots somewhere around her and she ducked quickly to cover herself, and immediately regretted it when a fresh wave of pain took over her body, and she let out a cry. When she felt like she could stand again, she only made it a few steps before her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

She passed out praying that someone would find her soon.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi my lovely readers! 
> 
> Sorry sorry sorry about that cliffhanger last time! I know, I'm so mean :p
> 
> And I've got a chapter full of serious feels coming at you now...

Darcy's dreams were filled with unsettling images of flying metal pods and purple-fletched arrows caught among falling bricks and plaster. But at some point concerned voices started impeding upon her dreams. In one such moment, when she was pulled to the surface of her dreams by a persistent throbbing pain in her side, she could have sworn she heard angry yelling.

_  
“How could you not have known!?”_

_“Are you kidding me!? I don’t remember half of the eighties!”_

_“Tony! Goddamnit!”_

_“Calm down Barton.”_

_A deeper and much calmer voice broke in then, “Yes, brother Clint, there’s no reason to...”_

_“Shove it Thor!”_

_“Come on Barton, don’t get your panties in a twist. It’s not even your problem.”_

_“Not even-- Are you fucking kidding me!? Darcy’s gonna freak out! Do you even know how hard the last few months have been on her?”_

_“If you all can’t keep your voices down, you’re going to have to leave,” A much quieter female voice cut off their arguing, and Darcy felt a gentle tugging on her arm, “We’ve already extended visiting hours for all of you. You can’t just...” Darcy started feeling a strong pull back into unconsciousness, and her vivid dreams took over again.  
_

There was another moment when Darcy could have sworn that she heard more yelling through the heavy haze of sleep, though a bit farther away this time.

_  
“Are you kidding me Barton!?” A deep baritone voice barked angrily._

_“No Sir, I can’t leave yet!”_

_“Like hell you can’t!”_

_“She’s still critical!”_

_“And she’s got the best doctors on the east coast helping her! Meanwhile you’re going to need a doctor if your ass isn’t on that quinjet tomorrow at oh-six hundred!”_

_“Director!”_

_“Barton, I don’t give a damn about your personal life. I barely give a damn about my own! And I can guarantee you who else doesn’t give a damn about your personal problems -- the goddamned Russians!”_

_A familiar female voice cut off their arguing then._

_“I swear to all that is holy, if you all don’t stop yelling in my hallways...” It was then that Darcy slid back into her fitful sleep.  
_

*

When Darcy finally woke, everything was much calmer. She blinked her eyes, trying to clear the blurriness from having them closed for a while. Then she noticed a heavy weight in her hand. Jane was sitting beside her, slumped down in her chair with her hand resting on top of Darcy’s.

“Hey.” Darcy’s said to get her attention. Her voice was rough and dry from disuse, and she suddenly noticed how thirsty she was.

Jane jumped a little as she woke suddenly, and stared back for a confused moment at Darcy’s open eyes. “Darce! Oh my god.” Jane squeezed her hand and turned towards the open door on the other side of the small room. “Pepper, come here! She’s awake!”

But Thor was the first person to come through the door. “Lady Darcy!” He had a wide smile on his handsome face, and he leaned down to hug her.

“Hey, thunder-bro.” She said, and winced when the hug pulled on her muscles and pain shot through her side. 

When Thor had pulled away he settled himself on the small couch on the other side of her bed. Darcy started to ask a question, but then fell into a coughing fit thanks to her dry and scratchy throat. Jane grabbed a pitcher of water that was sitting on a nearby table and poured a glass for Darcy, which she took gratefully -- sucking down the whole thing in three long sips.

A second later, Pepper entered the room, hanging up a call on her phone, “Darcy! Glad to see you awake.”

“Thanks, Pepper.” Darcy smiled a little weakly, “Glad to see you too. Where’s Clint?”

Jane gave Darcy a half-smile, “He had to leave for his op yesterday.”

“Oh. How long have I been out?”

“About four days. He really wanted to stay, especially since you hadn’t woken up yet, but Fury made him leave. They had this big fight about it out in the hallway. Clint was yelling that he couldn’t leave until you woke up, and Fury yelled that the Russians certainly weren’t gonna care about that, and neither was he. Clint was really pissed.”

“Shit.” Darcy’s heart dropped a little. She hated seeing him leave for work stuff, but this time she didn’t even get to say goodbye before he’d left. “What happened to me?”

“You got shot by a doombot during an attack --” Jane started.

“No, I remember that part. How did I get back here? I know I passed out on the street. Who found me?”

“It was one of the first responder teams that found you.” Pepper answered, “They did triage on the scene and took you to Mount Sinai where they did surgery. It took us a few hours to realize you were missing, but then we started checking hospitals in the area and by the next morning we’d found and identified you. So we had you transferred back to the Tower medical wing, which is where you are now.”

“Oh.” Darcy sat up a little taller in her bed, being careful not to pull the stitches in her side, “But I’m fine, right? Just a little bullet wound?”

Jane looked at Pepper, “Yeah...that’s all that happened.”

“What?” Darcy paused, “Something’s going on...”

“Well, Darcy, there is something else.” Pepper hesitated, which was entirely unlike her.

“What? Am I...what’s wrong?” What weren’t they telling her?

“It’s not about your injury - you’re going to be just fine. You just need a couple of weeks to heal up.” Pepper actually looked nervous, which did nothing to assuage Darcy’s anxiety, “Darcy, it’s the hospital’s policy here to screen each patient’s blood samples when they’re admitted to the medical wing, to check for any kind of chemical or biological weapons that might be entering the tower. And when they ran your blood sample…they found a biological match within the tower.” 

“Wait...what?” Darcy was confused, “What does that even mean? Like, a relative?”

Pepper tilted her head to the side when she answered, “Exactly like a relative.”

“Who-- How did...”

But it was Jane who answered this time, squeezing Darcy’s hand supportively, “Darce, it seems like your dad might not have been your biological father.”

“I...No. No! What are you talking about?!”

“Lady Darcy...” Thor tried to break in, standing and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

But Darcy shrugged him off. “No! Shut up! What the hell do you mean my dad wasn’t my dad?!”

“Darce...”

Darcy wanted to cry. It couldn’t be right. He’d been there her whole life -- she remembered it! She felt like she’d just skipped a step going down a flight of stairs, that same heaviness pulling at her gut. “If he wasn’t my dad, then who the hell is?!”

Jane and Pepper shared another nervous look.

Pepper answered, “According to the results of the blood screening...it’s Tony.”

Darcy couldn’t speak for a moment while that revelation sunk in. But, no. That couldn’t be right either. It was too ridiculous. The tears that had threatened just moments before finally spilled over and an angry sob stuck in her throat.

“Tony Stark is not my father!” She demanded loudly.

“Darcy...”

“No! Tony fucking Stark is not my dad!” She screamed, “Get out! Everyone just get the fuck out!”

“But Lady Darcy...”

“What’s going on in here?” A heavy-set nurse asked, popping her head into the room. “Oh, Miss Lewis. Glad to see you up.”

“I just need everyone out! Please!”

“Okay, Miss Lewis. You heard her. No more visitors for now.” She said sternly, ushering everyone out. Jane and Pepper went immediately, clearly resigned to letting Darcy have her time and space to process the information they’d just sprung on her. Thor began to protest, but the nurse cut him off with a glare, “Go. Now.”

When they’d gone, the nurse went about calmly checking vitals and IV levels while Darcy sat there silently sobbing. After a moment, the nurse handed her a box of tissues. “Miss Lewis, my name is Carol. You let me know if you need anything at all, alright?”

Darcy nodded, and nurse Carol left a second later. Darcy rolled over away from the door, as much as her stitches and bandages would allow, and the tears came harder.

Of all the things to be on her mind right now, and she couldn’t stop thinking about how her dad used to make her breakfast in the mornings before school. He was never much of a cook, but he always made frozen waffles in the toaster, and they were her absolute favorite.

Of all the things to be thinking about. Fucking toaster waffles.

Tony Stark was her father?

In biology only of course, but still, it pissed her off. 

Darcy had known that her mom had been a model in her younger days. Living and working in New York City. That is until Darcy came along, when she moved back out to LA, where her grandparents lived at the time. She had always assumed that her mom and dad met in New York, and they both moved back to LA together. But that was something her dad had never talked about, no matter how many times she asked as a kid.

Now, she supposed, it all made sense. And it made her see red.

She’d been lied to, and kept in the dark her whole life. And to think that Tony motherfucking Stark, of all people, was her real father? It rubbed salt into such a fresh and festering wound.

Darcy lay there until the tears ran themselves dry, and then she lay there still.

Of course Clint was gone for all of this. Darcy sat up and chucked the box of tissues across the room where it hit the wall and dropped to the floor with a thoroughly unsatisfying _thunk_.

And the injustice of such a tiny thing tipped Darcy over the edge into another fit of sobbing.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all you beautiful humans!
> 
> I’m so so so sorry it took me so long to crank out this chapter. I’ve been working like crazy, and I recently got cast in a short film. So I just spent the last four days on set, pretending to be a drummer in a punk band and getting doused in fake blood. It’s been a little insane, and I haven’t had any time to write. BUT! I’m trying really hard to get back on track with this story, so hopefully the next update won’t take so long.

Darcy was released from the medical wing a week later. Clint was still gone and Tony hadn't even been by to see her. Which was fine by her. She wasn't even mad at him she supposed. Pepper had explained to her that Tony had been just as clueless as she had been.

Surprisingly, though, she was almost more mad at Clint for being gone again when she needed him so much. She knew it wasn’t logical, and she knew it definitely wasn’t fair. It wasn’t his fault that Fury had forced him to leave, and she knew that he had tried like hell to stick around longer. But all the worry and stress of her trying to be there for him whenever he came home after a difficult mission felt like it was finally boiling over. She didn’t want to feel like just the “little woman” back home, and not feel supported in return.

It all came to a head the day he got back. Darcy was lounging around her apartment, watching Netflix. Her wound was still healing up, and so Jane had insisted she not come into work for a few more days, though she was checking in regularly, and both she and Pepper had been by a lot to see her. Darcy knew Clint was due back that day, and he had texted her earlier letting her know his ETA.

He knocked first, but let himself in -- something they’d started doing a few weeks ago. He already had a key to her place, since he was the landlord and all, but he’d made her a key for his apartment too.

“Hey babe,” He said, dropping his go-bag by the door and crossing over the to couch to give her a kiss.

“Hey.” She said shortly as he pulled back.

“How you feeling?”

“I’ve been better.” Darcy pulled the blanket a little tighter around her.

Clint sat on the armrest of her couch, and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “You still in pain?”

“Not so much.”

“Oh.” Clint sat up, starting to key into her mood, “You okay? I know everything with your dad...”

“Yeah. That’s a fucking dream.”

“Darce?”

She sighed, “You know, I get it that you can’t help having to leave for work. I try so hard to get that, really. But it really fucking sucks.”

Clint was taken aback. “Darce, I’m sorry,” He apologized sincerely, eyebrows high.

“No. You don’t need to be. Because I can’t be mad.” Darcy shrugged defeatedly, “You are literally going out there to save the fucking world, and I can’t be mad about that.”

“Then what the hell is this?” There was a touch of anger in his voice now.

“I AM mad. But I can’t justify it, and that sucks so hard. I have no right to be as completely fucking pissed off as I am, but I can’t help that I still feel this way.”

“I don’t get it...”

Darcy shook her head slowly, looking at her hands in her lap, “No, you wouldn’t, would you? Because you’re always gone. Dealing with everything else, while I stay here and worry my ass off about you every single second you’re out there.”

He stood suddenly and took a step back, “Hey, you think I wasn’t fucking worried about you, when I came back to that restaurant and you were fucking gone!?” He shouted now, “We couldn’t find you for more than twelve hours!”

“Twelve hours!? You’ve been gone for ten days, Clint. Ten fucking days, and I’ve been a mess that whole time. I always am. Never mind the fact that I just found out that my dad isn’t actually my real father, and instead I’m the fucked up offspring of a one night stand with the world’s biggest asshole!”

Clint held his hands up defensively, “Look, I tried to fucking stay longer! Fury wouldn’t...”

“Fuck Fury.”

He laughed sardonically, “I dare you to tell him that to his face.”

“Shut up! I needed you, Clint! I needed you and you weren’t there. Because you can never be there.”

“Hey! I try my fucking hardest!”

“I know you do, but I just don’t know if it’s enough.”

“I...what are you saying, Darce?”

“Just...just go, Clint.”

“Darce...”

“Go.”

His face fell as he took in her defeated posture on the couch. After a moment of blaring silence, he reluctantly turned around and left, slamming the door on the way out.

 

*

The next morning Darcy went back to work, despite Jane’s protests that she stay home and rest longer. 

“Jane I have binged every episode of America’s Next Top Model in the last week. Do you even _know_ how many seasons that show has? I’m starting to get a complex because I’m not six foot eleven, and I wear a bra size bigger than a B-cup. I had a dream last night that Tyra Banks was chasing me around your lab screaming at me, over and over again, that I was ‘no longer in the running to become America’s Next Top Model.’”

“Okay, okay. Stay, but just sit there. Don’t go climbing all over my machines trying to fix them.”

“Jane, I only do that so you won’t electrocute yourself, and--”

“Hey Foster.” Darcy stopped at the familiar voice, and looked over. Tony had just waltzed into the room, but had stopped cold when he saw Darcy sitting there. “Oh. Hi.”

Darcy had never seen Tony look embarrassed or hesitant before, but those were definitely the emotions flitting across his face at that moment.

“Hi,” She replied just as carefully.

Jane stood and picked up a messy stack of folders, “I’m gonna go run some of these readouts by Bruce.” She said, turning to leave, “I’ll be back later.”

Once she had left, an awkward silence descended on the room.

“Um…Hi.” Darcy repeated.

“Yeah. Hey, Lewis, look...”

“Tony, it’s fine. You don’t have to --”

“No, but...”

“This is awkward.” Darcy finally stated bluntly.

“You think?” Tony raised his eyebrows jokingly, “Lewis, I’m sorry about all of this. I never knew...”

“I kinda figured that. My mom never said anything. It was just kind of a shock, you know?”

“Yeah. I was pretty shocked too. I mean, I feel like I can’t be completely surprised that I had a kid pop out of the woodwork, but I didn’t mean for it to fuck up your life.”

“It didn’t fuck up my life. I’m just….” She took a big breath and let it out, “My dad just died a few months ago, and this was all just a lot to process. I didn’t want to believe that he wasn’t my real dad at first. I still don’t, to be totally honest. It’s kind of a big thing.”

“I get that. My dad...He was kind of an asshole to me most of the time, but I was still really messed up when he died. And then to find out that -- I’m just...I’m sorry, Lewis.”

Darcy just nodded, and the silence descended once more, though this time it was just a touch less awkward than before. 

“Hey,” Tony said, drawing her attention back to him, and she quirked an eyebrow. “What’d you do to fix Dum-E’s claw sensor? I thought I’d fixed like twice before you did and it never seemed quite right.”

Darcy smiled and started explaining what she’d done, and why his fixes hadn’t worked. She was still not sure about the situation, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah! So I know Darcy’s being a little unreasonable with Clint right now, but I’ve got reasons. She’s just had her world flipped upside down and backwards, not just in finding out that Tony is her real dad, but more-so in finding out that the man she knew and loved as her father for her whole life isn’t really her father. She’s not even entirely over his death yet, and she just found out that the foundation of her whole relationship with him was a lie. She knows that it’s not Clint’s fault that he has to be gone so much for work, but the fact is that he IS gone all the time, and she just needs support that she’s not sure he’s able to give right now (again, not his fault, but that doesn’t change the way things are). Don’t worry too much, though, I’m such a sucker for TaserHawk, I can’t keep these two apart for long!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi my lovelies!
> 
> Happy Friday!

Darcy was feeling guilty about picking a fight with Clint. Subsequently, she’d been avoiding him for a couple of days. But for all the ways that her relationship with clint was messed up, her relationship with Tony seemed to be flourishing -- albeit somewhat awkwardly at first. 

“Foster. Lewis.” Tony said simply, waltzing into the room. In his hand he held a greasy brown bag. “I brought lunch.”

“Bless you!” Darcy cried, rolling her chair around to take the bag from him. She unpacked several burgers wrapped in grease-soaked paper. 

“Jane.” But Jane was still completely absorbed by whatever she was working on at her computer screen. “Jane, lunchtime!” She said a little louder.

Still nothing.

Darcy looked at Tony, who was now sitting on her desk and smirking widely as he unwrapped a burger. She rolled her eyes. “JANE!”

Jane didn’t even react.

Darcy picked up one of the burgers and chucked it at the distracted scientist. It smacked her in the shoulder and Jane jumped, her chair rolling back as she flailed discoordinately.

“Aghh! What the hell!?” Jane yelled, pressing a hand to her chest as she caught her breath.

“Lunchtime.” Darcy shrugged, unwrapping a burger of her own and taking a bite. Tony was busy laughing his ass off at all of this, and he laughed even harder when he caught a glimpse of Jane’s glaring face.

And so it went for a while.

*

“Move over, Tony!”

“ _I_ should move? It’s _my_ damn suit!”

“And _you’re_ the one who can’t figure out how to attach the calf panels without cutting off your circulation.”

“Hey, I can figure it out. It’s just taken me a couple of tries to get the angle right.”

“And why was it you were limping after that training session this morning?”

“Hush, spawn.”

“Shove it, sperm donor.”

“Clint’s been a mess in training all week, you know.”

“Nobody asked you. Hand me that wire-cutter.”

“I swear his aim’s been like … Stormtrooper-bad. Wait! What wires are you cutting?”

“Quiet. I’m working.”

“I just mean, people fight. Hell, Pepper and I fight all the time. Doesn’t mean you have to freeze each other out.”

“Shut up and hand me that panel cover.”

*

But as the week wore on, the guilt of her fight with Clint was starting to wear on her even more. She had started snapping at everyone, and her temper was getting extremely short.

“Goddamnit Jane. Can’t you even check to see if things are plugged in before you start tearing them apart?” Darcy huffed, tossing down the cord she’d just unplugged and throwing up her hands in frustration, “I swear to god, I’m gonna have to scrape you off the ceiling one of these days.”

Jane looked up from where she sat on the floor with pieces and parts of one of her precious machines strewn about around her. “Sorry, Darcy. I just got distracted.” 

“Yeah. I know. You’re always distracted.”

“Hey.” Jane’s eyebrows rose. She looked a little like a puppy who’d just been smacked with a rolled up newspaper.

“It’s gonna get you killed, and then it’s gonna be my fault, and Thor is gonna kill _me_.” Darcy snapped, shuffling through the piles of readouts on Jane’s desk and gathering up a stack of them.

“Hey!” Jane crossed her arms in offense.

“Whatever Jane. I have to go bring these to Tony.”

Darcy stomped out of the room, and down the hall to Tony’s workshop.

“‘Sup, Lewis?” He asked, looking up from where he was making changes and notes to a holographic blueprint.

“Here.” She said shortly, tossing the stack of readouts onto his worktable.

“Well, aren’t you just a Jolly Pocket Postman.” Tony said, gesturing for Jarvis to minimize the holograms in front of him, “Hey, Lewis...”

“What do you want, Tony?” Darcy sighed, rolling her eyes.

He lifted an eyebrow, “Christ. What’s up with you?”

“Nothing. You need to give these back by tomorrow. Jane still needs them.” She turned to leave.

“Whatever you say, Princess.”

Darcy stopped and whipped back around to face him, glaring, “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” He looked back up at her in confusion.

“Don’t ever call me that.”

“What?” He shrugged, “‘Princess?’ Why?”

“Just don’t.”

“Look, I know you and Robin Hood are on the outs right now, but that doesn’t mean -- ”

“Stop.” Darcy held up a hand towards him, “Just fucking stop! You don’t have any right to lecture me about my relationships, or my life, or anything!”

“Woah, what the hell?” Tony stood and crossed his arms defensively, “You’ve been moping around here, snapping at everyone.”

“Just shut up! What the hell gives you any right to say anything about what I do.”

“You know, some people might say that since I’m your fucking dad -- ”

“That doesn’t mean shit, Tony!” She pointed an accusing finger at him.

“Hey, you wouldn’t even be here if --”

But that was the final straw for Darcy.

“Don’t you even fucking _try_ to give me that load of bullshit.” She said, her voice low and serious. Her eyes filled with tears which she tried to blink back, and her throat felt thick with emotion. “You’re not my dad! I _had_ a dad who raised me! He taught me to read, and to tie my shoes, and how to ride a bike! He taught me about mechanics, and how to play guitar! He was there when my mom died and I had no one! My dad worked his ass off and gave up his own dreams to make sure I had everything, so who the hell are you to tell me anything!?” She took a step away from him, “You’re no one. You’re certainly not my father. You really are nothing but a sperm donor.”

Tony stood there silently. For probably the first time in his life, he had nothing to say.

Darcy turned and stormed out of the room, and tears began to spill down her face.

*

Darcy ended up in the stairwell at the end of the hall, crouched on the step and sobbing hard enough to verge on hysterics. Eventually she had calmed down enough that her breathing settled down, but the tears still came.

After a few more minutes she heard a rhythmic pounding from below her getting steadily louder. She quickly wiped her eyes and tried her best to clean herself up before a tall and bulky shape rounded the corner of the flight of stairs. He stopped when he saw her sitting there.

“Darcy?”

Darcy quickly cleared her throat and pasted on a false smile, “Oh, hey Steve.”

She hadn’t had much contact with the blonde super soldier since his return, despite living in his old apartment. They had talked a bit at various group dinners, but they’d never gotten particularly close.

His t-shirt was soaked through with sweat, and he mopped his brow with the back of his forearm. But his blue eyes shone with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just heading back to Jane’s lab actually,” She said as she stood and straightened her hoodie. “Sorry to interrupt your workout.” 

“Don’t worry about it. Are you sure you’re okay? Did...did someone hurt you?”

“Oh god, no. I just...” Her eyes glazed with tears once more, though she did her best to sniff them back, “Tony’s just...”

“Oh.”

“He’s not my father. I… I had a dad. And I don’t dislike Tony at all, but he’s not my dad. But both of my parents just _lied_ to me about everything...my whole life. Everything I thought was… it was all a lie. All of it. And now with Tony... I just don’t know how to make all these pieces fit.”

Steve nodded sagely, and sat down on the step she had just vacated,“You have to make peace with your new reality.”

It occurred to Darcy then that Steve certainly would know all about that same feeling. The world he had known had been ripped away from him, and replaced with something new and strange. He had woken up and had to adjust to an entirely different existence. Everyone he had known had suddenly been dead, or dying, and they had all had lives that went on without him. In the blink of an eye, he’d also had to figure out how to make a brand new set of pieces fit into the edges of his life.

She sat back down next to him on the step, “I guess you’d know something about that, wouldn’t you?”

“It’s definitely not easy. It’s like taking a vacation somewhere great, but then someone tells you that you’re never able to go home again.”

Darcy sighed and nodded her head slightly, “That’s a good way to describe it.”

They were quiet for a moment until Darcy said heavily, “I miss home.”

“I do too.” He agreed, and there was a hint of sadness edging his voice.

Darcy placed her hand on top of his, and he gave her a reserved smile, but his eyes were far away -- decades away, she guessed.

Eventually they both broke out of their nostalgia enough for Steve to get back to running the stairs and for Darcy to get back to Jane’s lab. She apologized to Jane, who hugged her and told her not to worry about it. In that moment Darcy felt incredibly grateful to have such a wonderful and understanding friend.

*

Darcy tried to tamp down the butterflies in her stomach as she shifted the bags in her hand to set them on the ground. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door in front of her. 

A few seconds later, the door opened and Clint stood there in sweatpants and an old and ratty t-shirt.

“Hi,” She said, giving him a nervous smile.

“Hey,” He replied slowly, leaning against the open door.

“Clint, I’m so sorry. I was...I was such an asshole.”

He looked down for a moment before looking back up at her. “Darce, it’s okay. You’re dealing with so much right now...I can’t…” He sighed, “I couldn’t even blame you for the things you said.” He shrugged, “You were right, you’re always there for me -- supporting me. And I’m not always able to do the same for you. I took it for granted -- you being there.”

“No. Clint, I _am_ sorry. I’m not handling this well, and I just want to fix this.”

“You mean...us?”

“If you’re willing to give me a second chance.”

“Come here.” He said solidly, pushing off of the doorframe to wrap his arms around her. She felt him press a kiss to the top of her head. “I think I’m the one who needs a second chance, babe. I love you.” He said, his voice muffled slightly by her hair.

“I love you too, Clint.” She pulled her head back to look at him, and then his mouth was on hers. The kiss wasn’t frantic, or wild, but it was sweet and firm, and reassured them both.

When they pulled apart, she picked up the plastic bags she had set down earlier.

“I brought Chinese.” She said with a smile.

“Szechuan Palace?”

“Yeah.”

“Crab rangoon?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Get in here.” He smiled back and tilted his head towards the open door.

Darcy grinned as she passed through the door, and she felt a huge weight lift off her chest.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all you beautiful humans! Commencing the longest AN everrrr…
> 
> Ugh! I always tell myself that I'm gonna knock a whole chapter out while I'm at work. I work at a dance studio, and part of the time I teach, but I also spend a lot of time working the front desk. But right now is super nuts at work because our spring recital is in 2 weeks, so I'm not just doing my usual work (which generally allows me plenty of downtime to write -- minus the smutty stuff which I _do not_ write at work, lol), I'm also selling and distributing recital tickets, and making sure parents have signed all their various waivers, and sorting each class’ costumes, and making sure my 5 year olds know their dances (as well as any 5 year old can -- let's be real) for dress rehearsal, and putting together the master show list so we can make sure no kids go missing on recital day (which would probs be bad).
> 
> And as if that wasn’t taking up enough of my time, I (finally) started watching Agents of Shield literally yesterday.And of course, predictably, I love it. So there goes life as I know it.
> 
> Also, in yesterday’s events: Coming home from work to finding my bathroom flooded with an inch of standing water that had also soaked into the ginormous pile of dirty laundry conveniently located immediately outside of my bathroom door. So I cleaned all that up (and _actually_ did my laundry) and then I went and saw some long-form Tennessee Williams improv at Second City.
> 
> Keepin’ things interesting. Life is a fucking adventure.
> 
> Aaaaanyways. *Shrugs* Here’s a chapter that’s almost shorter than this AN...

Darcy hadn’t spoken to Tony in nearly a week.

He hadn't dropped by Jane’s lab even once while she was there, and every time she reluctantly had to drop off or pick something up from his workshop he’d mysteriously been out. Though, she supposed, that was doable when you had an all-seeing AI at your service. Tony had probably asked Jarvis to give him a three minute warning whenever she was approaching.

In some ways she was glad. Not having to face him meant not having to face her problems.

On the other hand, not facing her problems meant that the guilt of yelling such nasty accusations at him just piled up around her. She had taken to getting up to walk around every couple of hours, no matter what she was doing, or else the regret would settle into her joints like some kind of sinner’s arthritis.

She had woken up much earlier than she’d meant to -- the sun wasn’t even close to being up yet and her alarm wasn’t due to go off for another three and a half hours. But she couldn’t get back to sleep. She had rolled out from under Clint’s arm to pull on a clean pair of underwear and one of Clint’s t-shirts. When she left the bedroom he was still snoring lightly. And now she was currently nursing a cup of coffee and having a staring contest with her father’s well-loved acoustic guitar case, which sat propped up in the corner on the other side of the living room. Darcy leaned forward with her elbows on the counter, sipping from her mug, and stared the instrument down from across the room.

Finally she crossed the room and laid the case on the ground. It had developed a fine layer of dust in the last couple of months without being touched -- which made her think about the last time her apartment had been dusted or cleaned (probably back when Steve had lived there). She brushed a hand across the flat lid, feeling the edges of so many stickers and scuff marks. Darcy unlatched the case and opened it, pulling the smooth wooden body out of it’s worn felt lining. She settled onto the edge on the couch, and balanced the guitar on her knee.

Darcy started to strum aimlessly -- the movements waking up her muscle memory. She ran through a few chords and tried out a few simple strumming patterns before falling easily into the rhythm of a song she’d known for years. When she had finished that song she moved onto another she’d learned more recently, and then still another -- playing older songs her dad had loved, and a few of her favorite pop songs she’d learned the chords to. And at some point she began mindlessly singing along.

_"I fought for you_

_The hardest, it made me the strongest_

_So tell me your secrets_

_I just can't stand to see you leaving_

_But heaven couldn't wait for you_

_No heaven couldn't wait for you_

_Heaven couldn't wait for you_

_No heaven couldn't wait for you_

_So go on, go home"_

Darcy wound down the song to scrub at her eyes which had become damp. 

“That sounds really nice.”

She jumped at Clint’s voice behind her.

“Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up.”

“It's okay, babe.” He was lounging against the kitchen counter in nothing but a pair of briefs -- the pre-dawn light from the windows throwing the dips and valleys of his muscles into beautiful contrast. Clint gave her a smile then nodded towards the guitar in her lap, “You're pretty good.”

“You should've heard my dad, back in the day. He was great.”

“He taught you.” It wasn't a question.

“Yeah, a little.” She glanced down and pressed the fingertips of her left hand against her thumb. Her fingers were sore and imprinted with pink grooves from pressing into the strings -- she clearly didn't have any calluses left. “I haven't played since high school.”

Clint sat down next to her and she shifted to set the guitar on the floor, leaning against the arm of the couch.

He took her hand and kissed the tip of each finger lightly.

“I’m sorry, Darce.” He whispered, glancing back up at her.

“For what?”

“For everything you’ve been through the past few months. I know it’s been hell. It’s been so hard for you, and I know I definitely don’t make anything easier.”

“Yes you do.” He gave her a look, “Okay,” she conceded, rolling her eyes, “Maybe not with the jumping off buildings and the getting shot at a few times a week. But with everything else,” She took his hand, much like he had with hers, and kissed the roughened palm. “You kind of make the unbearable stuff bearable.”

Clint moved the hand she held so that he could cup her cheek as he leaned in to kiss her. She kissed him back, releasing so much of the tension she’d felt for weeks into the press of his lips and the line of his body as she shifted to lean against him on the sofa.

It wasn’t long until their kiss became more heated, and Darcy moved until she sat astride his lap. He wrapped both arms firmly around her waist and leaned back into the cushions of the couch.

Soon enough, Clint was breaking their kiss to lift the shirt over her head and he tossed it away somewhere. It didn’t matter. He dipped down to kiss her bare breasts, and Darcy could feel him growing hard beneath her.  
She coaxed him out of his briefs -- awkwardly shimmying them down his hips, and gave his cock a couple of firm strokes, making him buck into her hand.

“Ungh. Darce.”

She smiled at that, but was made her own needy sound when clint brought one hand down to cup her cunt through the nearly soaked cotton of her panties. She squirmed as he pulled them to the side, slipping his fingers easily through her wet folds. He returned her cunning smile.

He kept her panties pulled aside as Darcy lined the blunt tip of his cock up with her entrance, and slowly she sank down, pressing him inside her. When he was fully sheathed, their hips flush against each other, he blew out a breath against her breasts making her giggle slightly with the tickling sensation. He grinned up at her, that is, until she began moving her hips, then he made a careless sound from deep in his chest and dropped his head back against the couch. 

She rolled her hips into him, feeling every inch of his length slide against her sensitive flesh, and he met her movement with a thrust that pushed him even deeper inside her.

She braced herself against his shoulders, as she felt the first sparks of her climax building, and she leaned closer against him dragging her pebbled nipples against his sweat-damp chest. He pushed up into her, his hips at just the right angle to drive her wild. And as he peppered sucking kisses against the line of her neck she tumbled over the edge into her orgasm, throwing her head back and yelling his name. The clenching of her muscles was enough to pull him over right behind her, and he came with a groan, his mouth slack and panting against her throat.

They caught their breath and then eventually extracted themselves from the couch to have a repeat encounter in the shower. After the third or fourth time (Darcy was too blissed out to keep count) Clint had to leave to go train at the tower with Natasha. So with much reluctance they actually focused on washing themselves making themselves socially presentable.

*

 

Tony was having a rough morning.

Pepper was mad at him for mouthing off to an interviewer the day before and, subsequently, he’d spent the night on the couch. He’d woken up to a terrible crick in his neck and the news that his unfortunate interview had made the gossip headlines. He rolled his eyes as Kathy Lee and Hoda made terrible wine-soaked puns at his expense (not that he had a whole lot of room to judge people hitting happy-hour pretty early in the day, but those ladies drank Chardonnay like it was orange juice). To make things worse, he cut himself shaving, which he probably hadn’t done since he was a teenager. Then, after spilling coffee on his shirt in a dramatic display of physical comedy that Chris Farley would have been proud of, he got a call from Happy that made him anything but. 

“What do you mean he escaped!?” Tony demanded into the phone as he paced angrily in the elevator on the way down to his workshop.

 _“Well sir, there was a riot at the prison. And when the guards and administration got everything back under control he was gone.”_ Happy answered reluctantly.

“But I thought Seagate was supposed to be this impenetrable fortress?” Tony stepped off the elevator and made his way down the hall to his workshop. “What the hell?”

 _“They’re reviewing all the security footage now, trying to figure out how it happened.”_ Happy explained. He was just as pissed about the situation as Tony was.

He sighed, pushing open the door, “Jarvis, keep an eye out for any mentions or sightings of Justin Hammer. Security footage, red light cameras; anything. Alert me immediately if anything pops up.” Jarvis’ ever calm voice replied in agreement. 

Tony stopped suddenly when he saw a pair of short and curvy legs poking out from under the lift that held up the body of his newest suit. Seeing Darcy back in his workshop and working on his shit, he felt a smile that wanted to break through the stress of everything he was dealing with at that moment.

“Just keep me in the loop, Happy. I don’t want any more nasty surprises from this asshole.” He said tersely then hung up.

Darcy popped her head up from under the suit and met Tony’s gaze.

“Hey.” She said with a guilty smile.

He pushed his worries about Justin Hammer and his personal issues to the back of his mind and smiled back. “Hey,” He replied.

Darcy didn’t say anything else, but got back to work tinkering with his suit. Tony sat down at his work table and pulled up a couple of holographic blueprints he had been messing with.

They had some shit to deal with, for sure. But they’d deal with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make this chapter longer, but it just didn't work to split it anywhere else. So a short chapter it is. Oh well.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies!
> 
> How is it that whenever I have the most work to do, I somehow always end up writing more?
> 
> Anywhooo… So the other day, the always lovely Liebekatze gave me the most amazing inspiration for how to proceed with this story, which changed my whole plan - but in the best way! We’re gonna see a lot more from Tony’s perspective, but I think it should balance things out quite nicely :D 
> 
> Also, as a point of reference, this story falls somewhere after T:DW and CA:TWS, but before AOU. So this is all pre-Vision stuff in terms of what we know about Infinity Stones.

Tony and Darcy still hadn’t hashed things out. They were just sort of ignoring the elephant in the room -- pretending it wasn’t crowded and making the place smell like a zoo -- and going about their business like everything was fine.

Darcy was fine.

Tony was fine.

Everything was fine.

Really, really fine.

Fine.

But Pepper had had enough.

“Tony,” she said abruptly one morning, gliding into the kitchen where Tony was eating a slice of pizza (at seven thirty in the morning -- she sighed internally).

“Hmm?” He glanced up from the StarkPad in his hands, mouth full of cheese and pepperoni.

“What is this?” Pepper asked holding up the little red and gold plastic box he’d been working on and had misplaced the night before.

He finished chewing, and raised an eyebrow at her, “Um...It’s a taser.”

“Uh huh. And since when do you use a taser?”

Tony could tell by the tone of her voice that she had something to say about it that he probably wouldn't like, so he bullshitted an answer out of thin air. “I’m thinking of building a tasing function into my suit, actually. You know, knock ‘em out cold.”

“Uh huh.” She have him a skeptical look, “Jarvis? Is that true.”

Shit.

 _“I have seen no evidence or behavior to back up Sir’s statements.”_ Came the betraying British voice.

“Thank you Jarvis.” Pepper replied, giving Tony A Look.

“Traitor.” Tony muttered in the direction of the ceiling, “If you had a head, I’d cut it off.”

_“I’m sorry to hear that, Sir. Current protocols indicate that I am not permitted to provide misinformation.”_

“Fucking protocols. I wrote those protocols!” Tony huffed.

_“And a lovely job you did with them, Sir.”_

He rolled his eyes, “Kiss ass.”

_“My apologies, Sir. There must be a technical glitch in my synthetic sentience programming.”_

Pepper had to wave her hand in front of Tony’s face to pull him out of his mutterings about fuck technical glitches and not writing code for sarcastic comebacks, but eventually she got his attention back.

“Tony.”

“Sugar bear?”

Pepper glared at him.

He shrugged defensively, “What? No? Okay, okay. What’s up?”

“Have you talked to Darcy?”

“About what?”

“About why I found a ‘StarkTaser’ on the bathroom counter this morning. You don’t manufacture small weapons like this.”

“Yeah, but I’m thinking about it. Patent pending.”

“Tony!”

“What?”

“This is your way of trying to look out for her. I get that. But you haven’t even talked to her. You can’t just keep building her weapons instead of dealing with this.”

“Maybe because the last time I tried to talk to her, she bit my head off and…” He hesitated for a second, then changed directions, “I’m not her dad. She made that really damn clear.”

“Tony,” Pepper sighed, “Darcy had a father figure who raised her. She had a man in her life who cared about her, and loved her, and did all the things for her that a dad is supposed to do. And then she lost him.” Pepper leaned a hip against the counter and crossed her arms, “And before he’s even cold in the ground, she finds out that he wasn’t who he said he was -- wasn’t who her mother said he was. Such a fundamental part of her identity turned out to be a lie, and now she doesn’t know if anything she thought she knew is real.”

Tony sighed, “I get that, I guess.”

Pepper continued, “And as if that wasn’t enough, she finds out that her real father is right in front of her.”

He shrugged dismissively, and picked up the taser to fiddle with the back panel, “She doesn’t need another father, Pep.”

“No, she just doesn’t need to be raised. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need you.” Pepper stepped towards him and placed her hands on top of his, stilling them. “You can’t come on too strong. That’s why she rejected you before.” She flipped his hands over and threaded her fingers through his. “You can’t just jump into her life, expecting to have her respect you as a father figure. You can’t ground her, or scold her, and not just because she’s an adult -- but because it’s not your place to do so. She doesn’t respect you as her father, but she _does_ respect you as a colleague and a friend. And the rest you’ll have to figure out together.”

Tony huffed.

“You don’t have to tell me I’m right.” Pepper said, giving him a knowing smile. She picked up her phone which sat on the counter and blew out a breath when she saw the time, “I’m going to be late for my eight o’clock meeting. I’ll see you later.”

She made to step away, but Tony didn’t let go of her hand and pulled her back towards him. He leaned in to give her a kiss. “I love you, Pep.”

“I know,” She smiled, “I love you too.”

Tony watched her pick up her phone and security badge, and head out the door. He had a lot to think about.

*

“Hey science lady.”

Jane made an indecipherable grunt, and sort of waved her hand in Darcy’s direction from where she was scribbling something on a whiteboard across the room.

Darcy came up beside her, “What’s this?” She asked, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder. The best way to get the attention of a distracted Jane in the wild was to make physical contact -- much harder to ignore than a verbal cue.

“Oh,” Jane said, glancing at Darcy and clearly noticing her consciously for the first time, “Hey Darce.”

Darcy nodded towards the board again. “What’s this?” She repeated patiently.

“Oh yeah, I’m making a chart of all the seismological events in the last six months and their corresponding gravitational readings from the supermassive black hole we’ve been watching. I’ve been looking at all the separate readings and data, but I need to see it all in one place. This is driving me insane.”

“More than usual?”

“What?”

“What?” Darcy asked innocently. Jane went back to writing without a beat.

After Jane finished writing everything out and Darcy forced the scientist to eat half a bagel, they sat on the floor in front of the board, staring at the chart. Doctor Banner came by for a while and after a pointed look from Darcy, sat there staring with them for almost an hour before heading back to his own lab.

A little later Thor dropped by.

“I’ve come to escort my dearest ladies to lunch!” He boomed, sweeping into the room.

“Shush!” Darcy scolded him with a finger to her lips. “We’re staring.”

Thor glanced from Darcy’s stern expression to Jane’s unbreakable gaze on the whiteboard. “I see as much.” He said in confusion, “What are you staring at?”

“The chart.” Darcy gestured to the whiteboard.

Thor blinked, “Again, I see this. But why?” He glanced from Darcy to Jane and back again when the latter showed no signs of even having noticed his appearance in the room.

“Don’t question the Science! man! Sit down.” Darcy grabbed his hand and dragged him down to sit on the floor in between her and Jane.

They sat there in silence for another thirty minutes before Jane let out a loud noise of frustration and stood abruptly, startling both Thor and Darcy.

“Ugh! I don’t understand this. It seems like it’s just generating these gravitational fluctuations spontaneously. There isn’t a natural cause for them.”

Darcy thought for a minute, then stood. She walked over to stand directly in front of the board. Something occurred to her then, and she turned around to face Jane, “So maybe there’s a synthetic cause for them.”

The scientist stopped and looked back at her, “What are you saying?”

“I don’t know.” Darcy shrugged hesitantly, “Maybe I’m grasping at straws here, but… Portals don’t just open on their own right?”

“Right.” Jane nodded, “Unless they're being created by a natural universal occurrence like the Convergence, they need a catalyst or an energy source...Like the Tesseract!”

“But this can’t be the Tesseract, can it?” Darcy asked. “I thought Hammerpants took that back to Asgard after New York.”

Thor, who by that point had stood again, nodded and crossed his wide arms, “Indeed, we did. The Tesseract is under safeguard by Heimdall in Asgard. Unless something has befallen him, we have nothing to worry about from the Space Stone.”

“But there are other Infinity Stones. I mean, that’s what the Aether was, right?” Darcy mused, sitting in her rolling chair.

Jane shivered slightly with the memory of being infected with the Aether. “Yeah, but this couldn't be the Aether either, could it?” She looked to Thor for confirmation.

He crossed to Jane, “No, this is not the Reality Stone at work. That, too, is in safe hiding.” He cupped his lover’s face gently in comfort, reassuring her.

“How many are there?” Darcy asked.

“The legends speak of six stones.”

Jane nodded, “We already know about the Space Stone, and the Reality Stone --”

“Wasn't there a stone powering the Chitauri scepter that Loki used to fuck up Erik and Clint?” Darcy asked. A flare of anger flitted through her at the thought of how Clint had been used and controlled by Loki.

Thor validated her question with a nod, “The Mind Stone.”

“Okay, so that’s three. What else is there?”

“Again, the legends refer to stones that control space, reality, mind, soul, power, and time.”

Jane’s face lit up, “Time!”

“Shit, you're right!”

“That could theoretically explain why the gravity is travelling so fast to earth.”

“Something’s fucking with time.”

“Exactly.”

“But how does Simbah play into this?” Darcy asked.

Thor’s expression was confused, “Simba? Isn't that the young feline character from that animated film we watched together?”

“It’s her nickname for ‘supermassive black hole.’” Jane explained while rolling her eyes.

“Short for 'supermassive black hole.' S-M-B-H -- Sim-bah.” Darcy explained, “Saves time.”

“But not really, since you have to explain that nickname every time someone hears you call it that.” Jane sighed.

“I've explained it to Tony, Bruce, Clint, most of the other lab techs, and now Thor. Who else is there?”

“Fury, Nat, Steve…” Jane trailed off to prove her point.

“Trust me, I came up with that nickname while inside the Tower -- Fury and Nat already know.” Darcy pointed out, and Jane shrugged. “And as for Steve --”

Darcy pulled out her phone and shot the super soldier a quick text.

>1:13pm **Just** **so you know, I've nicknamed the phrase ‘supermassive black hole’ “Sim-bah,” since that's the closest phonetic pronunciation of it's initials.**

They’d become much closer since Darcy’s breakdown in the stairwell, and they often texted memes and cat gifs to each other.

Steve’s reply came a few seconds later.

1:13pm **Um, thanks for the info?**

>1:14pm **You're welcome!**

“Okay, so now that everybody knows,” Darcy put her phone away, “Where do the black holes come in?”

“That is a very good...” Jane trailed off the end of her sentence, already digging through piles of research and already completely distracted by Science!.

“Question.” Darcy finished for her. She turned towards Thor, “She meant to say ‘question,’” She explained with a shrug.

Thor gave her a mirthful smile as he watched Jane dance around the room, searching for answers to the universe.

Darcy pulled her phone out again, “I’m gonna order some food. This is gonna take a while.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Darcy are dealing with their shit, I promise!!!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all you wonderful humans! 
> 
> So the world is apparently both very tiny and a little weird. Found out this week that apparently one of my boyfriend’s coworkers reads my stuff. They got to talking about fandom things, and my bf mentioned to him that I write Avengers fanfic, and as they talked a bit more I guess they figured out that he reads my stories. I mean, out of the tens of thousands of writers on AO3…Totally weird, lol:) So, hey boyfriend’s coworker! *waves awkwardly* Nice to meet you via the internets!
> 
> And now that the _It’s A Small World_ theme song is probably thoroughly stuck in your head, here’s a chapter!

“Hey Thing One and Thing Two,” Tony said, marching into Jane’s lab one sunny afternoon. “Remember that high-powered seismometer I ordered last week? It’s getting here today.”

Jane gave a whoop of enthusiasm, and Darcy did a celebratory spin in her rolling chair. Ever since their realization about the infinity stones, Jane had jumped into her research with renewed fervor. She had been feeling so burnt out that her work was getting her nowhere, and now it was like someone had relit the fire under her. Tony had been excited by their discovery as well, and he’d ordered them some new equipment to help with the next stages of their research.

“They’re supposed to deliver it later this afternoon.”

“Finally! I can’t wait to see what kind of readings we’ll get with sensors that are so much more acute.”

Darcy smiled as the two Science! geeks got into one of the conversations where she could understand about every six words or so. She understood enough from working with Jane for so long, but she still didn’t have a degree in the finer aspects of astrophysics. But it was cute to watch them geek out over it all.

Just then, the loud siren that signaled an Assemble alert went off in the lab, startling them all.

“Goddamnit! That’s the third alert this week. Jarvis, what’s up?”

The alert siren quieted as Jarvis replied, _“Sir, it seems that Doctor Doom is attacking the Bronx with what appears to be a large robotic scorpion.”_

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” Tony sighed, “Ladies,” He gave them a mock salute on his way out.

Darcy pulled out her phone and shot Clint a text.

>11:55am **Hey, be safe.**

  
11:56pm **I will. Be back by dinner ;)**

 

“Great.” Darcy sighed, putting her phone away.

Jane huffed, and flopped back down in her chair, “Yeah. Wanna see if Pepper’s around?”

“She’s got an investors’ meeting today.”

“Well shit. We might as well get some work done.”

“Sounds like as good a plan as any, boss-lady.”

They worked for a little while longer -- Jane backing up some of their recent readouts on her computer, and Darcy tinkering with one of their older machines that kept crapping out on them. And it wasn’t long before Jarvis’ voice got their attention.

_“Excuse me, Doctor Foster, Miss Lewis.”_

“‘Sup J-man?” Darcy responded, looking up from her place on the floor with the machine.

 _“It seems that the equipment delivery has arrived. They should be in momentar-ar-ar-il--”_ Jarvis’ voice stuttered out then abruptly cut off.

Jane looked up from her computer then, “Jarvis?”

Darcy stood and brushed herself off, “Hey, J-man. You okay?”

“Hi there,” A man interrupted by popping his head into the lab, “I’ve got a delivery for a Doctor Foster?” He was dressed in a pair of gray coveralls that were zipped up to the middle of his chest, revealing a white undershirt beneath.

“Oh,” Jane shifted her focus again, “That’s me.”

“If I could just get your signature right here.” He said, holding out a tablet and stylus for her to sign. Behind him four men, in matching gray coveralls, carried a large wooden crate into the lab.

Darcy glanced in their direction as they set it down in the middle of the floor, but she was still distracted by the weird technical glitch Jarvis seemed to be having.

“Jarvis? You with me, buddy?” But she got nothing in response. That was definitely weird. “Hey, Jane...” Darcy began hesitantly. She noticed then that the delivery men all had suspiciously identical haircuts -- almost military -- and she started inching away from them and towards the wide windows. “Jane…?”

“Yeah Darce, what’s up?” Jane finished signing for the package and glanced up at Darcy. And in that moment, Darcy saw the man who had been holding the tablet pull out a knife and grab Jane around the shoulders. Darcy screamed as the man held the knife up to Jane’s throat. Jane, for her part, made a quiet but terrified squeak when she felt the sharp edge pressed against her neck.

Darcy was so stunned that she didn’t move until she felt someone grab roughly onto her upper arm. She started to struggle before she felt the cool metal of a gun press into the side of her temple.

“Well, shit,” She stated bluntly.

“Okay,” The first man said, as the other three goons fanned out to start tearing through their desks and piles of research, “This is how this is going to work...”

*

“I fucking _hate_ arachnids!” Tony heard Clint say via their ear comm.

“You hanging in there, Robin Hood?” He asked sarcastically as he dodged the giant titanium tail for what felt like the thousandth time in half an hour.

“Just, fucking delightful, Tony. Thanks for asking.” The archer replied dryly.

“I thought these creatures were supposed to be quite small.” Thor commented as he swooped in to crash Mjölnir against the armored plates of the robotic scorpion, denting the metal but not breaking through.

“Normally, yes.” Steve answered, while ducking behind his shield to block a hard hit from the scorpion’s stinger, which they had discovered gave a pretty nasty electric shock. Luckily, Steve’s shield was coated in an anti-conductive compound, or the move would have done him much more harm than good, despite the serum. “But in my experience, Doom’s not into paying attention to scale.”

Natasha came through the comm then, muttering something about “overcompensating,” and something that sounded suspiciously like “Napoleon complex.”

Tony was trying to get a good angle to aim his repulsor blasts beneath the panels of armor, when Jarvis came through his comm.

_”Excuse me, Sir, but there is a matter at the tower that, I believe, warrants your attention."_

  
“Yeah, Jarvis? What’s up?”

_“It seems that there is something jamming my functions on the laboratory floor, and I cannot access audio or video feeds.”_

“What the fuck?” He mused out loud, as he ducked another swing of the tail and shot a repulsor blast between two exposed panels of titanium armor. “Anyone in the labs right now?”

_“Yes Sir. Before my feeds went dark Doctor Foster and Miss Lewis were both in their lab. In fact, my signals disappeared just as the new seismometer was being delivered.”_

Tony’s stomach dropped and dread flooded his bloodstream, “Great.”

“What’s up, Tony?” Sam asked, as he swooped past mid-shot.

“Something’s jamming Jarvis’ signals in the labs back at the tower. Foster and Lewis are in there.”

Barton looked up from his perch on a nearby rooftop, “What the hell? Are they okay?” He asked, anxiety coloring his question.

Thor caught Mjölnir on a return and paused, looking equally concerned, “Have they been harmed?”

“No idea. Jarvis is totally dark in there. No communication in either direction.”

“What’s the plan?” Natasha asked, ducking as the Hulk body slammed the scorpion and they both slid back, digging deep ruts into the pavement.

“I’m thinking, Barton, Thunder Dome, and I head back to the tower and check things out. I figure we’re all gonna be a bit distracted until we know those two are fine. You got things handled here, Cap?”

“I think we’ll manage. Go check on them.” The super soldier replied from the ground.

“Yeah, get outta here. I think you’re holding us back anyways.” Sam said jokingly.

Tony flew in a low arc to land on the same rooftop as Barton, “Need a ride?”

“That’d be nice. Thanks.” He replied, locking his bow in place on his back beside his quiver.

“Hop on, darling.” Tony smirked as Barton wrapped his arms around the neck of his suit, “Don’t get fresh now.”

“Shove it, Stark.”

“Anything for you, my love.”

Tony could practically hear Barton’s eyeroll. He took off from the rooftop, and flew beside Thor as they made their way across town.

When they approached the tower he counted windows as best he could, flying up to approximately the right place.

“Jarvis, help me find the right windows here.” Tony requested, swinging in close to the side of the building.

_“Of course, Sir.”_

The specs on the inside of the mask lit up the right set of windows, and he flew a little higher. As he did, Barton gripped Tony’s suit with his legs so he could pull out his bow. He shot an arrow that landed and attached itself about twenty feet above the window’s to the lab. The archer had used them before to get height in battles -- arrows that were attached to high-powered, remote-controlled magnets, that he could attach to his belt to act as a grappling hook.

“Thanks for the lift,” Clint smirked, letting go of Tony’s suit to swing against the building and repel down a few feet. He still stayed high out of the way of the windows.

“Any time, Legolas.” Tony aimed his repulsor at the glass, “Jarv, can you get me heat signatures?”

_“Displaying all heat signatures within Doctor Foster’s lab.”_

The majority of his view turned dark grey, and the rainbow colored forms of people lit up, showing the occupants. One of the forms was seated where he knew Foster’s main personal computer to be, while another two moved around the room. He could see four more rainbow blobs inside, one that looked like it was holding another against its chest, elbow to the side as if holding a weapon. Two more were much closer to the edge of the windows, the bigger form gripping the arm of the smaller one -- and again, clearly holding a weapon.

“Okay, hold up Barton, Thor. I see our girls inside,” Tony mentioned, “They’re both being held. You think you could bust out the windows, with that thing, Point Break?”

“I fear the force of Mjölnir would shatter all the windows on this side of the structure.” Thor replied.

“I think this one’s on you, Tony.” Barton pointed out.

Tony let out a breath, “Okay, I gotta be careful with this shot, though. One of them’s pretty near the windows.” He aimed his gauntlet repulsor, and a set of digital crosshairs appeared in the specs on the inside of his mask. “Let’s get ready to rumble, folks.”

*

Darcy’s heart was already pounding a mile a minute as the goon holding Jane talked. Then from behind her she heard a deafening crash and Jane screamed. Darcy fell to the ground as shards of glass flew everywhere. Around her the men shouted over the rush of wind from outside.

She chanced a glance up at the now gaping hole where the side of the building had once been, just in time to see Mjölnir fly through and slam into one of the goons. The man flew back about ten feet from the force before dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

A second goon was hit with a repulsor blast, and he staggered back a few steps before collapsing to his knees and falling forward onto his face with a weak groan.

In nearly the same moment, she saw a blur of maroon and black as Clint repelled down from above the hole and swung into the lab, landing amongst the glass and debris. Then with shockingly fast reflexes, he pulled an arrow from his quiver, knocked it, and let it fly straight through the shoulder of the goon sitting at Jane’s computer. The guy looked down at the arrow as red began to soak through the gray of his coveralls, and he swayed then fell onto the floor.

“Ugh,” She groaned and glanced at her captor, “I feel like you can’t appreciate how stupidly hot that just was.” He glared at her, and she raised her eyebrows, “Okay, shutting up now.”

The head goon holding Jane quickly dropped his knife in favor of reaching into the partially unzipped front of his coveralls and pulling out a handgun. He shot a few times at Thor, who had landed in the lab, and easily blocked the shots with the armor covering his forearms.

By this point the man gripping Darcy’s arm had recovered, and yanked her roughly to her feet, pressing the muzzle of the gun to her head once more.

“We didn’t want any trouble!” The goon holding Jane shouted over the wind, pointing the gun between Clint and Thor.

“Yeah?” Tony snarked, hovering at the edge of the blown out windows. “You probably should’ve thought of that before you shot at us and threatened people we care about.”

The two remaining goons shared a look then glanced at the floor in between them. Sitting on the floor, a few inches from their colleague’s limp hand, was a tiny flash drive. But their look didn’t go unnoticed.

The goon holding Darcy glanced around at the Avengers surrounding them, then shoved Darcy as hard as he could toward the gaping hole in the wall. She stumbled, slipping on the loose pieces of glass beneath her feet and felt herself tip out of the opening as the goon dove for the flash drive. She desperately grabbed for anything she could hold onto, but there was nothing.

She heard Clint scream her name, and Tony yelled something else that was swallowed up by the wind rushing in her ears as she cut through the air so fast she couldn’t make a noise.

Darcy caught a glimpse of red and gold, and then gasped before she slammed into something very solid and the wind was instantly knocked out of her.

“It’s okay, Lewis. I got you.” Tony’s voice said near her ear. Black spots flashed in front of her eyes as she got her bearings. She was okay. Tony had caught her. The wind was still rushing by as Tony flew her back up to the hole in the side of the building. They landed on the floor, glass crunching under the suit, and he let her down gently.

“Darce!” Clint shouted, running across to them and yanking Darcy into a tight embrace. She gasped and winced as he squeezed tightly against parts of her that were a little battered from crashing into Tony’s suit. But she didn’t really care. She hugged him back just as tightly, ignoring the protestations of her sore muscles.

She glanced behind him to see that both of the other goons were now lying prostrate on the floor amongst the other debris and bodies. Jane was sitting on her desk looking a little impatient as Thor checked her over for injuries.

“You okay?” Clint asked seriously, when he finally pulled back.

Darcy nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine. A little sore maybe.” She looked over at Tony who had the mask of his suit flipped up.

“Hey,” She said, and he looked back at her, “Thanks for that.”

“Anytime, Lois Lane.”

Darcy made a face at the nickname, but she turned her attention back to the man in front of her. “Are _you_ okay?”

“Besides the heart attack I had watching you fall out that window? Yeah, I’m good.” He gave her a slight smile.

She smiled back, until the sound of a gunshot rang out through the well-ventilated lab.

Darcy flinched at the sound and glanced around to try and gauge where it had come from. Everything stopped when she caught movement on the floor and saw the first goon that Clint had shot with an arrow holding a gun in a shaky hand. She followed the angle of the weapon with her eyes... straight back to Clint.

That’s when she noticed the look on his face. His mouth was agape and all the color had washed out of his features.

“No.” Darcy shook her head, pulling back further to inspect his body with fluttering hands.

“Shit.” He croaked out when she pressed her fingers against his ribs. They came back wet and sticky with blood. He let out a breath in a loud huff -- specks of blood spattering his lips -- and fell against her as he passed out.

“Tony! Help!” She screamed, but Tony had already taken the goon out with another repulsor blast -- he wasn’t getting up this time. Thor rushed over to help lift Clint’s weight off of her, and she felt her stomach drop sickeningly at the sight of his limp form in Thor’s arms.

Tony laid a metal hand on her shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh! Cliffhanger -- I know, I know! Don't hate me please!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhhh! I'm so sorry for that last cliffhanger! I know that was totally evil...*shrugs guiltily* Blame the muse, not the writer?
> 
> But hello again my favorite humans! I just couldn't leave you stewing in all those feels for too long, so you get two chapters in two days! :))) Yay!

Darcy sat anxiously in the plush waiting lounge of the medical floor at the tower. Jane sat across from her, dozing on Thor’s shoulder, while he flipped through an old issue of People magazine. The scientist had a piece of white gauze taped to her throat, from where the head goon’s knife had nicked her. Darcy was exhausted from the adrenaline crash and sore as hell. She had a number of shallow cuts on her face and arms from the glass breaking, and the rest of her body was bruised and achy from slamming into Tony’s suit when he caught her.

They had rushed Clint to the medical floor, and Tony had blasted open the crate the goons had delivered to find a device inside that had been jamming Jarvis’ communications within the lab. Tony had smashed it to pieces, and Jarvis was live again.

After escorting them to the med floor to get checked out, Tony had disappeared a while ago on a mission to get them coffee and hadn’t returned yet.

The others had finished taking down the metal scorpion in the Bronx several hours earlier, and were just getting out of medical for their own injuries. Natasha had gotten an electrical burn on her shoulder from the bot’s “stinger,” and Sam had gotten a pretty large gash on his calf which had to be stitched up. Steve had only ended up with a few minor cuts and bruises that would all heal on their own within a few hours. And Bruce had quarantined himself in his rooms as he often did following an appearance of The Other Guy, to recover in quiet solitude.

“How’s Barton?” Sam asked as the three of them entered the lounge. He dropped into the chair next to Darcy and propping his injured leg on the seat of the chair across from him.

Darcy opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when she felt a catch in her throat and a new wave of tears threatened to fall.

Thankfully, Darcy was saved when Thor saw the look on her face and answered for her, “Our Shield Brother is still in surgery. His injury was quite grave,” He said putting down his magazine.

Darcy shot him a smile that was both grateful and a little watery.

Steve circled around to sit on the other side of her, and bumped her shoulder with his. She glanced up at him and the look on his face wasn’t the stock sympathy she had been getting from nurses and other Stark Industries employees all night. It was a look of such deep understanding that Darcy felt a pull inside her gut.

He knew. Really, truly knew what she was feeling then. The deep fear that Clint wouldn’t make it, that his body was too damaged, that he’d lost too much blood. That when the surgeons came back in, they would tell her “We did everything we could,” -- he felt that all the time.

Bucky had died. Or at least Steve had thought so.

That at least was a clean kind of grief. Grief that stabs you quick and deep, but heals well, if slowly.

But then he found out that, no, Bucky wasn’t dead. He’d been turned into an unwilling weapon. Beaten, tortured, and broken -- how many hundreds of times in the past seventy years?

That was a messy grief, where the knife gets twisted and jerked around. The edges are rough and jagged, and nothing ever heals quite right again.

He felt that every day since SHIELD fell.

So she could handle this.

Darcy leaned her head onto Steve’s shoulder and settled into her nervous silence once more. On her other side, Sam and Natasha chatted quietly, and Thor had gone back to his gossip magazine while Jane continued to snooze against him.

A while later, Tony knocked on the door to the lounge. He’d showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a pullover hoodie with the MIT logo on the front.

“Hey guys,” He said, putting down a tray of coffees on the nearest end table, “I ran into Clint’s surgeon in the hallway. She said I could give you guys the good news.”

Darcy felt the knot of tension in her gut unwind at the word “good.”

Tony continued, “Clint’s just coming out of recovery now. They’re gonna keep him sedated and on a ventilator for a while longer to be sure, but it looks like he’s gonna be okay.”

“Are we permitted to see him?” Thor asked quietly, mindful of the still-sleeping scientist on his shoulder.

“I think they don’t want too many people crowding in there right now. But Darce,” He nodded at her, “They’d probably be fine if you wanted to go see him.”

Darcy nodded back, and stood a little shakily. Her muscles were much more tired than she’d realized. Sam put his leg back down so she could cross over to the door where Tony put a hand on her back to lead her out of the room.

They started down the hall quietly, until Tony said, “The doc said he’s in room 124.”

Darcy nodded again but said nothing.

“I can go, if you want.” Tony said hesitantly, unsure if he should keep following her or leave her to her own business.

“No.” Darcy shook her head, “No, that’s okay. I uh...I don’t really want to do this alone.”

Tony smiled mildly, and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as they reached the right room. Darcy’s hand hesitated over the knob, so Tony turned it for her and pushed open the door. Her heart stuttered at the sight inside.

Clint’s face was pallid and bloodless, and he was intubated -- a plastic tube coming out of his mouth, helping him to breathe. The bruises on his face from both fights that day looked so much darker without the normal color in his cheeks.

Darcy felt the tears come and this time she didn’t try to stop them. She crossed the room to stand beside his bed and she took his hand, trying to avoid all the tubes and wires that hooked him up to various machines. His knuckles were rough with scrapes and scabs, which was not unusual. He often had scrapes and cuts on his knuckles in various stages of healing. Just an occupational hazard.

Darcy mused on the fact that his occupation had significantly more hazards than most. But she had made her choice. She had made the decision to stick by him despite it all, and she knew that sometimes this type of risk would be on the table.

It didn’t make it feel any easier though.

“You should try to get some sleep.” Tony said a few minutes later. He had been quiet the whole time, just letting her take the time she needed, and just sharing the space with her so she wouldn’t have to be alone.

She looked at him. He didn’t look all that great either. He looked as exhausted as she felt, his normally well-trimmed goatee was getting stubbly, and he had his own set of bruises blooming across his face.

“I’m not trying to tell you what to do...” He started when she didn’t say anything, “You just look tired.”

“It’s okay, Tony. You’re right.” She let go of Clint’s hand, setting it back down carefully on the blankets.

“I want…” He started again. It seemed like he had something he was dying to say, but he was beating around saying it, “I want you to know, I'm not trying to be your father.”

“Tony…” She started, but he held up his hands and kept going.

“I didn't know about you, and I usually don't talk about this kind of shit, but…” He looked around the room, anywhere but at her, “I started caring about you even before I knew you were my daughter. I don't have to be your father,” He pulled it together enough to look at her again and took a step towards her, “But I can be a friend. And I'm always gonna be looking out for you, Darcy. You're a hard person not to love.”

Darcy stood slowly, her arms wrapped around herself, “I just don't know how to do this.” She said, tears falling again, “The universe took away my dad, and as soon as I find out I've got another father, he’s always running headfirst into danger and nearly dying every week.”

“I know it’s not fair.” Tony shrugged. He wasn’t going to pretend that it was. “But you’re one more thing I’ve got to fight for now.”

Darcy dropped her arms and let him pull her into a hug. But as soon as he did, she felt her defensive walls crumble. Every stress, and every emotion from the last six months came rushing back in a suffocating wave. She let out a heaving sob, and then another, until she fell against him and began to cry uncontrollably. Tony just let her -- not caring that she was soaking the shoulder of his sweatshirt with tears and snot. He just held her tighter and let her cry herself dry.

*

Tony took the elevator down to the lab floor. He completely avoided Foster’s lab, which was already under construction to fix the windows, and went straight to his workshop.

Darcy had eventually calmed down enough that he was able to get her upstairs to his and Pepper’s apartment in the penthouse, where she quickly passed out on the couch in the living room.

He stalked into the workshop and dropped exhaustedly into the chair at his desk.

“Jarvis, pull up everything we’ve got so far on the bastards who fucked with Foster’s lab.”

_“Right away, Sir. I was able to find arrest records, driving records, and several other miscellaneous files linked to the five men who infiltrated this afternoon.”_

Jarvis projected the various files onto holoscreens in front of Tony, who sifted through the information. “Obviously, they were after Foster’s black hole research. Any idea who these guys are working for?”

_“It appears they were hired by a dummy company under the name Marteau Incorporated. They were hired separately six days ago by a woman named Jasmine Thrum, who paid them cash for their services. I can find no other relevant results for ‘Marteau Incorporated’ on the web.”_

“Who’s this Jasmine Thrum chick? Have we seen her before?”

_“Not according to my records, Sir. Online activity logs for her only go back several weeks, and access to her files is limited at best.”_

“Hmm. That sounds a bit like an alias if you ask me.” He scratched at his beard absently, “Let’s keep her flagged for activity. I don’t want to miss anything this psycho does. She’s all over my shit-list in capital letters.”

_“Noted, Sir.”_


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh. Okay. So.  
> Recital is over. My kids did great and they were stupidly adorable. After they got offstage, one of my little girls asked me if they could go back and do it again! Ugh. I love my job:)
> 
> Anywhooo...I just spent the last week visiting my parents in Ohio, and I didn't get a whole lot of writing done at all since I had to leave my computer at home because of reasons. So apologies for the wait on this one.
> 
> On another note, I've now got a tumblr for fanfic stuff. However, I am the literal worst at using tumblr. I've had another tumblr account for like 5 years or something, and I think I've actively used it less than 15 times because I just do not know how to do the tumbles. I'm like Steve Rogers trying to program the clock on a microwave or something, I swear -- you’d think I was like 85. So, in theory, you can leave me prompts and stuff there :) … https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gryffindancer

Darcy woke to the smell of coffee and cooking food. She turned over and groaned when her muscles protested painfully. She sat up as slowly as she could manage and glanced around. She was on a couch, but she didn’t recognize the furniture or the layout of the room. 

“Good morning,” A chipper female voice said from behind her. Darcy whipped around to see Pepper in the adjoining kitchen, pushing something around in a frying pan with a spatula.

Darcy groaned when the quick movement caught up to her body. She groaned again when the memories of what had happened the day before caught up to her brain.

“A little sore still?” Pepper asked.

“Ugh,” Darcy grunted, picking up her glasses from the coffee table and putting them on, “‘A little’ is a definite understatement. I feel like I got run over by a Mack truck.”

Pepper smiled sympathetically. “Here,” she said, pushing a glass of water and a bottle of painkillers forward on the counter, “I figured you might need some of these.”

“Thanks,” Darcy replied, standing carefully before crossing to the island where Pepper was cooking. “Sorry if I snored.”

“Don’t worry about it. I do too.” said Pepper, turning to retrieve something from the refrigerator. 

Darcy narrowed her eyes at the other woman, “Bullshit.”

Pepper just shrugged and effortlessly kicked the refrigerator door closed with one foot.

“You’ve passed out on my couch before, and I’ve never heard you snore.” Darcy defended her stance, “You sleep like a Disney princess!”

“Do you like cheese in your omelettes?” Pepper gracefully ignored Darcy, opening a container of shredded cheddar.

“Yeah, I do.” Darcy answered, dropping the snoring thing in favor of alleviating the soreness she still felt. She popped the pills in her mouth and washed them down with a gulp of water.

“So does Tony,” Pepper smiled brightly as she tossed a handful of the shredded cheese onto the eggs in the pan.

“Where is he, anyways?” Darcy winced, remembering how she’d sobbed tactlessly into his shirt the night before.

Pepper slid Darcy’s omelette from the pan to a plate, then mentioned, “He’s been down in his workshop all night. I thought I’d bring him some breakfast before my meetings today.” 

“Oh,” Darcy glanced down at the countertop uneasily, “I could maybe bring it to him. I kind of need to talk to him anyways.”

“Really? That would actually help quite a bit. I’ve got a packed schedule today. Lots of new hires.” Pepper said. She set Darcy’s plate and a fork in front of her.

“Thanks.” Darcy smiled appreciatively. “Why so many new people?” she asked, picking up her fork.

“Well, wouldn’t you know it, every time we have an incident like the one yesterday, at least five people quit. We’ve got former SHIELD agents on staff -- you’d think they’d be used to these kinds of occurrences.”

Darcy shook her head, “I’ll still never completely get over the fact that falling out of a building qualifies as relatively normal around here.”

“You’re doing alright, though?” Pepper asked as she started a second omelette in the pan.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be bungee jumping anytime soon, but yeah, I’m alright.”

As soon as she took a bite Darcy remembered that she hadn’t eaten anything since before the attack the previous day, and she was suddenly _starving_. She had to keep herself from wolfing it all down in three bites.

“I’m glad.” The older woman gave her a fond smile.

“I have a new appreciation for Tony’s occasional habit of flying around in a weaponized suit of armor.”

Pepper gave a serious chuckle while poking at the eggs to see if they were cooking evenly, “Tony really cares about you, Darcy.”

“I know,” She paused and set her fork down, “I was kind of an asshole to him before. I just keep fucking all this up, but I’m trying to make it right.”

“I know that.” Pepper nodded and flipped the eggs with a skilled hand, “I told him that, too. None of this has been easy for you. And while it might not be my place to say anything about this, I know you blame your parents for not telling you.” Darcy shrugged noncommittally and Pepper continued, “It might not have been the right choice, but in a situation like that, it may often seem like there is no _right_ choice. I wouldn’t be surprised if your parents had meant to tell you someday. Your mother’s death was sudden?”

“Yeah.” Darcy poked at her eggs.

Pepper shrugged gently, “Your father might not have known how to tell your mother’s secrets after she was gone. Or he may have been afraid to have to be raising you on his own, and did what he thought was best to get by.”

Darcy considered all of that. She supposed Pepper was right (That woman just always seemed to have all of the answers). She knew her father had given up everything to raise her. He'd been all she had, but she had been all he had as well. And how would one say, _“So I know you just lost your mother, but - by the way - I'm not your father either. Hope that's cool.”_ And she knew from experience that people didn't always make the best or most logical of choices when they were grieving.

Maybe there was a whole lot more to this than she’d been considering.

 

*

“Hey,” Darcy said, walking into Tony’s workshop. “I brought you food.”

“And that’s why you’re officially my favorite offspring.” Tony’s voice came from behind his worktable.

“I’m your only offspring.”

“That we know of.”

Darcy tilted her head, raised an eyebrow, and huffed in agreement. She rounded the table to see him laying on his back, surrounded by small holoscreens.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Fixing our security problems.”

“And how are you going about doing that?” She asked, setting the plate of food and a fork on his chest.

“Oh, hey thanks.” He commented, swiping most of the holoscreens away and sitting up awkwardly, so as not to knock the plate over. He shimmied into a better position and then took a bite, “Pepper make this?” He asked through a mouthful of egg and cheese, so it came out sounding a bit more like, “Peppe meh dih?”

Darcy nodded.

Tony swallowed his eggs, “She’s the best.”

“Yep.”

“I probably don’t deserve her.”

“Probably not.”

“Thanks.”

“So,” Darcy returned them to the previous subject, “Security problems?”

“Oh yeah,” Tony said, setting down the plate and pulling up one of the screens. “So, first of all, I’m having Happy implement a new security badge protocol. No one gets in or out without swiping their badge.” He pulled up a set of plans that showed a line of new turnstiles just past the regular security desk in the lobby. Anyone getting in the elevators to the upper floors would have to pass through them. “Also, we’re gonna put in metal and radiation detectors in the delivery bay. And from now on, all delivery people will be escorted by at least two members of Stark Industries security.”

“That actually seems totally reasonable given most of the tower’s residents.”

“Oh yeah,” Tony glanced at her out of the side of his eye, “There’s one more thing. And I don’t know if you’re gonna like it or not.”

“Fuck. Well, what is it?”

“I want you and Foster to do some basic self-defense training, but until then I want you to have ‘round the clock security.”

“Double fuck. Are you kidding me?”

“It’s just a precautionary measure until we figure out why the people that hired those dickbags wanted Foster’s research.”

“Okay, so give Jane the bodyguards. I’m just the assistant.”

“You’re also my daughter.”

Darcy sighed.

“I don’t want to play the dad card, but seriously, Lewis, you could have died. I’m not fucking around.”

“You gonna ground me if I refuse?”

“Come on. I’m not trying to be a dick, I’m just trying to keep you safe.”

“I can keep myself safe, thank you very much.”

“Darcy --” Tony started to argue further, but he was cut off at that moment by Jarvis’s smooth voice.

_“Miss Lewis? I’m happy to report that the doctors have seen fit to remove Agent Barton from the ventilator, and he is currently awake and asking for you.”_

Darcy’s somewhat sour mood from Tony’s news shifted immediately at the AI’s. “Thanks Jarvis!” She jumped up and headed for the door, “Don’t think I won’t find a way to wiggle out of this, Tony. Because I will!” She added as a parting shot.

Tony sighed heavily as he watched her go.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my favorite humans!  
> I pretty much love how this chapter turned out. Hope you do too;)  
> Darcy's had a lot on her plate.

When Darcy showed up outside Clint’s room, the first thing she noticed through the open door was that his color was much better -- the pinkish hue back in his cheeks again. Just that little thing allowed her to let go of a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. She waited until the nurse that was adjusting his meds and taking his vitals -- not the same nurse she’d had during her stay in the medical wing -- finished bustling around and left the room. The nurse, whose name badge said “Sandy,” gave her a smile on her way out.

“Hey you,” Darcy said, rapping her knuckles against the doorframe. 

Clint looked up from the magazine in his hands -- one of those ridiculous satire rags with a headline that read, _“Captain America’s secret past: Hydra spy all along!”_ Darcy snorted and rolled her eyes -- right, like anyone would ever believe _that_ load of crap.

“Hey beautiful,” he replied, setting down the magazine. His voice was scratchy, she guessed, from the tube that had been in his throat. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. Come here.”

She crossed the room to sit on the edge of his bed.

“How’s your pain?” She asked, picking up his hand and threading her fingers through his.

He shrugged, “I’ve had worse.”

“Do you need more medicine?” With her free hand, Darcy reached for the pump that would give him an extra dose of painkillers.

“No, don’t.” He covered her other hand with his, stopping her, “That stuff’ll make me drowsy and I don’t want to go to sleep when the view’s this good.” He gave her a wink and a cheesy grin.

Darcy raised an eyebrow at him. “Hmm. They must have you on the good stuff.”

“Only the best.” He winked again, and she stifled a laugh.

“Clint,” she said more seriously, “Don’t do that to me.”

“Don’t wink? Okay, I promise. No more winking,” he said (of course while winking).

“Not that,” She rolled her eyes, “I meant, don’t get shot. You really scared me.”

“It’s my fault.” He squeezed her hands, “I should’ve double checked that the guy was out. You were right there -- It could have been you, and it was all my fault.”

“Clint...”

“I was just so glad you were okay, I got distracted...” He shifted to grip her hand harder, and she didn’t miss the flicker of pain that crossed his face at the movement. The jolt of pain seemed to sober him even more.

“Clint, stop. It’s not your fault.”

“You fell out of a building!”

“And I’m fine, look at me.” She leaned back and used her free hand to gesture towards herself, “Just a little banged up. Tony’s suit could stand to have some airbags.”

But Clint was being stubborn, “I got you in danger.”

“What? How?”

“This job, this fucking tower.” He indicated to the general space around him, “Anyone here has a target painted on them because of us.”

Darcy pinned him with A Look, “Babe, I’ve had a target painted on me ever since Thor fell out of the sky.”

Clint shrugged, “So let’s get away.”

“What?”

“Let’s go away. I don’t need this job, or any of this shit. I just need you. Let’s go. Road trip. We’ll go to Disney World.” He raised both eyebrows enthusiastically. The glassiness from the meds was back in his eyes now.

“Clint.”

His brow furrowed, “Not Disney World? You’re right, Florida’s too humid. We’ll go cross-country. Disneyland!” The excitement flashed again..

“Clint, babe, we can’t do that.” Darcy sighed.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re high on painkillers right now, so I’m pretty sure you don’t know what you’re saying. Besides, we can’t leave. You can’t quit because of me, and I can’t leave Jane.”

“I just want you to be safe.”

“You’re not the only one, apparently.” She remarked half under her breath.

“What?”

“Nothing. I will be safe, Clint. You don’t have to worry about me.”

He huffed. “Too late for that.”

“Well, now you know how I feel.”

“Touché.”

“Besides,” Darcy leaned back in her chair, resigning herself to her words. “It’s a dangerous world, and apparently this kind of shit runs in my family anyways. So if we’re being honest, I’m probably safer being near you than not. And you’re a million times better than a fucking bodyguard.”

“Am I your superhero?” Clint asked with such a cheesy smirk, that Darcy couldn’t help but laugh.

She rolled her eyes and kissed his hand, “You’re super-something.” 

Clint started laughing then quickly winced, “Ungh.”

“Okay, that’s it. You need more meds.”

“Ungh. Maybe. Will you stay?”

“Of course. How else will I be able to flirt with all the hunky male nurses?”

“Not fair, Lewis. Kick a man when he’s already down, why don’tcha.”

Darcy laughed, “I love you, punk. Go to sleep.”

“You better keep those...lips,” he paused to yawn, “...off the...nurses...”  
*

“Darcy! Stop, where are we going?” Jane protested as Darcy dragged her down the hall by the arm.

“Shush. You’ll find out in a minute.” Darcy shot back. 

She hadn’t done much, but it had been a long day all the same. After Clint fell asleep that first time, she went up to his rarely-used tower apartment to shower and change -- she was really glad she had thought to leave several changes of clothes there, just in case. Mostly she had spent her day curled up in the chair beside Clint’s bed while he dozed off and on, but eventually he kicked her out, saying he wasn’t going to let her waste all her time sitting around waiting for him to heal. She protested vehemently, but then he compared it to sitting and watching paint dry, then called the nurse in to kick her out.

_“Hey, nurse Sandy! Carol! Somebody!”_

_“Clint, you’re being ridiculous! I just like making sure you’re okay.” Darcy was close to yelling now, but Clint wasn’t having it._

_“Well, I’m okay.” He crossed his arms stubbornly, “I’ve been okay all day. Now you need to go do something better than sitting around a boring hospital room all night. Carol!”_

_“I’m not wasting my time!” Darcy exclaimed with her hands on her hips, “Spending time with you is not wasting my time!”_

_“Yes, sweetie?” Nurse Carol said, popping her head into the room. “What’s wrong?”_

_“Kick her out, please.” Clint requested seriously._

_Darcy’s eyebrows shot up, “What!? Clint!”_

_“Agent Barton, are you sure...” Carol hesitated, looking between the two of them skeptically._

_“Yep.” Clint insisted, “She’s too pretty. It’s interfering with my recovery. I need her to go do something productive.”_

_“Clint! I am not leaving!”_

_Carol shrugged apologetically, “Sorry, honey. If the patient asks, I gotta kick you out. It’s policy.” She gestured for Darcy to leave._

_“What? Are you freaking kidding me!?” Now Darcy was yelling._

_“Bye,” Clint said with a smug smile, “I love you, babe. See you tomorrow.”_

_“Clint Barton, you are in such deep shit for this! I swear I’m going to...” But that’s all she was able to say before the door shut in her face._

So Darcy had stormed out of the medical wing to go find Jane. Unfortunately, she found Jane sitting on the floor outside the taped-off doors to her lab, typing furiously on her laptop. 

_“What in the Nordically holy name of Thor are you doing here?” Darcy crossed her arms and stared down at her friend and boss._

_“They won’t let me in!” Jane pouted._

_“Of course they won’t, Jane. There still aren’t any windows in there!”_

_“But I neeeeeed my laaaab!” Jane whined pathetically, closing her laptop._

_“You are ridiculous.” Darcy threw her hands up, “Everyone in this fucking building is completely ridiculous!” She stormed away towards the elevator._

_“Wait. Where are you going? Darcy?” Jane shouted after her._

_Darcy stepped into the elevator as soon as it arrived and pressed the button for the lobby._

_“Jarvis, I’m going to need a grocery delivery sent to the lobby as soon as possible.”_

_“Of course, Miss Lewis. What should I order?”_

Darcy picked up the bags when they arrived, and took them back upstairs with her. She stopped on the lab floor, made Jane put down her computer, grabbed her by the arm and began dragging her down the hall and into the elevator, which was where she was now.

“Darcy!”

“Hey, J-man. Penthouse please.” Darcy asked.

_“Right away, Miss Lewis.”_

“Darcy, what are you doing?” Jane insisted.

Darcy looked at her, “Yesterday was awful, right?”

“Well...yeah. Duh.”

“And today wasn’t much better. So we’re going to have a girls’ night, because we are adults and we can. Also, because Clint kicked me out of his room, and I really need tequila.”

“Oh. Okay, hell yeah.” Jane nodded her agreement to Darcy’s plan.

The elevator stopped and let them out on the top floor. 

“Thanks, Jarvis. Oh! And let Natasha know we’re up at Tony and Pepper’s, drinking our brains out.”

_“I will pass along the message.”_

“Thanks J!”

They got to the main door of the penthouse and Darcy knocked. 

A few moments later, Pepper answered the door, her phone tucked between her ear and her shoulder. 

“Hi,” She mouthed. She let them in then covered the mouthpiece with her hand and whispered, “It’s from financial. I’ve been trying to hang up for ages.” Pepper gave a graceful roll of her eyes, but gestured for them to make themselves comfortable.

“We’re having a girls’ night. It’s been decided.” Darcy replied, reaching for Pepper’s phone. She took the phone and held it up to her ear, wincing slightly at the monotonous droning voice on the other end talking about shared dividends or something equally boring. “Oh no, you’re breaking up,” Darcy made gargling sounds into the speaker, “I can’t hear you,” more gargling sounds, “The tower’s going through a tunnel,” she gargled again for good measure, then hung up and handed Pepper’s phone back to her.

Pepper and Jane were both laughing hard, and Pepper was shaking her head slightly at Darcy.

Darcy smiled impudently, “Like I said: Girls’ night. Jane doesn’t have a lab right now, Clint’s in the hospital and kicked me out, Tony’s forcing us to get bodyguards or something, and you’ve been up to your ears in meetings and probably a bunch of phone calls just like that, all day.” She pulled a bottle of tequila and a bag of limes out of one of the grocery bags and set them on the coffee table. “I’m assuming Natasha’s on her way up right now, so let’s get everything set up, because as soon as she gets here we are going to do shots.”

Pepper grinned. “I’ll get the salt.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m assuming you probably caught the line that sums up how I feel about the whole new CaptainAmericaIsReallyHydra! thing. 
> 
> Lol.
> 
> I live in a city where the tallest skyscraper was officially renamed the “Willis Tower,” like 7 years ago, but EVERYONE who lives here ignores that and still calls it the Sears Tower, because that’s stupid and Chicagoans are unfailingly loyal (It’s why Cubs fans are so dedicated, and also probably why we stick through the godawful winters here).
> 
> Stories belong to their readers. That’s why I started reading fanfic, and that’s why I started writing fanfic. Authors can choose to do whatever they want to their characters, and we can choose to either support those choices... OR we can ignore them because they’re stupid and go write lots of (now) non-canon fanfic that honors the characters in ways that AREN’T a total “Fuck You” to their loyal fanbases.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. I’m so sorry this chapter took seven billion years to get out. Our summer session just started at work and since it started I’ve subbed _seventeen_ ballet classes, then had to be back in Ohio for a weekend for a friend’s wedding (which was the coolest/nerdiest wedding ever - guys, their wedding theme was literally “WeddingCon 2k16,” omg. They got married in front of a giant TARDIS, instead of place cards we had con-style name badges, and each table at the reception had a different nerdy theme - Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Dragon Ball Z, Star Wars, etc). So it's been a crazy few weeks of covering for people, and trying to find people to cover for me, traveling again, then coming home to immediately start teaching Superhero Hip Hop camp.
> 
> Also, I got a prompt a few weeks ago, and omg, it is taking over my life. For a almost a whole week there, it was the only thing I could focus on, especially since I was already having issues knocking out this particular chapter. So that should be coming soon…;)

Ladies night was a rousing success.

They discovered that Pepper had a secret talent for mixing incredible margaritas and daiquiris, Jane impressed everyone by managing to recite the entire periodic table of elements even after three drinks and five shots, and Natasha still out-drank them all.

“I'm jus’ saying,” Darcy paused to pour more Malibu into her glass of coke, which she had switched to after they ran out of tequila. She managed to only spill a little of the liquid on the coffee table in the process. “You two need to ssstop beating up the bush.”

“You mean ‘beating _around_ the bush?’” Natasha asked, looking up from Jane’s feet, where she was painting the smaller woman’s toenails a deep shade of crimson. She had already painted Darcy’s toenails an obnoxious shade of lime green, and Pepper was next - as long as she didn't pass out first, which she had a tendency of doing.

“Well, you two are Avengers. I wouldn’ put it past you to beat it up too.” Darcy replied, taking a big sip of the sweet drink. Pepper looked over at them from the TV where Pretty in Pink was playing. She snorted inelegantly, before turning back to the screen where Duckie was lip-syncing _Try a Little Tenderness._

“Sam and I are friends. And my love life is not up for discussion, thank you very much.” The redhead said curtly, but raising an amused eyebrow at Darcy. She finished painting Jane’s toes and capped the bottle of varnish. “There, you're done. But don't move until it’s dried.”

Jane gave her a serious salute while loudly slurping up the last of her daiquiri. “Welp, I need a refill. So who wants to get it for me?”

“I will.” Darcy said, jumping up and grabbing Jane’s outstretched glass. “My toenails are dry now.”

“We should do this more often.” Pepper said, pulling her attention from the movie once more as Natasha settled in front of her to start on her toenails with a bright shade of turquoise polish.

“Do what?” Nat asked, shaking the tiny bottle to mix up its contents.

“Movies. We sh’watch movies.” She said, slurring her words together a bit.

Darcy looked up as she was pouring the last of the blender full of daiquiri into Jane’s cup. “You know what, you'rright! We haven't all done any fun stuff together since like new year's.”

“I've been too busy getting my lab attacked and destroyed.” Jane tossed in sarcastically, and Darcy rolled her eyes.

“Next weekend we’ll do movies.”

“What do you suggest we watch?” Natasha asked.

Pepper sat up quickly and tossed a hand into the air like she was in school, “Sixteen Candles!” She had a huge thing for John Hughes movies, and was responsible for the current selection that was still playing in the background.

“As much as I think Thor might like that one, I'm gonna veto. I've had enough Molly Ringwald for a while.”

Pepper sat back again, and Darcy had to use the tiny fraction of clarity she had left not to laugh at the picture of the perpetually professional woman sulking on the couch.

It was moments like that one that were worth the hangover she was going to have the next morning.

 

*

“Come on, punk. All the good seats will be taken.” Darcy placed a hand under Clint’s arm to try to help him up off the couch, where he had been sitting and sulking for most of the day.

He had been released from the medical wing, but had only moved back into his Stark Tower apartment for the time being. There were a few things that Clint never handled well. The first was being sedentary for too long, and the other was being told that he couldn’t do something. He was practically radiating energy from being stagnant for a little more than a week, and Darcy could see the stubborn glint in his eyes that meant he was probably going to try to push himself too hard.

Clint made a face and shook her hand off to try to make it off if the squishy cushions by himself, “Hmph.”

Darcy sighed and crossed her arms. “I know you're pissed that you're not allowed to train with the team yet, but come on! You've only been out of the hospital for two days. You still need to rest.”

“I'm fine.” He panted, pressing a hand to his still-healing side.

“You're gritting your teeth.”

“No I'm not.” He argued, relaxing the set of his jaw.

“You're such a bad liar. How in the actual hell are you a spy?”

“I'd rather just stay here with you.” He finally gave up and leaned back into the cushions, faking nonchalance.

“Ugh. Clint, please?” she flopped down next to him. “You’ve been sitting here and pouting since you got out. You might not be ready to go back to kicking ass yet, and I know you're pissed about that, but you need some human exposure. It's probably good for you or something.”

He looked her in the eyes then, the stubbornness in his expression melting a little as he reached out a hand to brush a piece of hair out of her face. He sighed then shook his head slowly. “Fine. Let’s go. But if someone’s already taken the oversized armchair, I'll kick their ass to get it back.”

“Sure you will, babe. And then we’ll be spending the night in the med wing because you decided to pick a fight over furniture and probably passed out.”

He glared at her mildly, and she grinned back at him when he held out his hand so she could help him up.

When they got to the common floor no one had taken the oversized armchair - partly because Darcy had texted Steve to make sure no one took it.

Darcy let Clint sit first, then curled up beside him.

Pepper got up and stood in front of the TV, “Glad to see everyone could make it,” She smiled. “Okay, so tonight we’re going to be watching a cult classic, even though we _could_ have watched a delightfully fun John Hughes flick,” She glared at the other women, causing Jane to boo, and Natasha to toss a handful of popcorn at her. Tony laughed, and Pepper rolled her eyes, holding up the blu-ray case. “Anyways, without further ado, Pulp Fiction.” Pepper sat back down beside Tony and started the movie.

“Is it just me or does that guy look just like Fury?” Steve asked, a few minutes into it.

“I’ve always thought that!” Darcy agreed.

Thor chuckled warmly, “He does, indeed, look a fair bit like the one-eyed warrior.”

Later Sam spoke up, “Oooh! That obscure Gilmore Girls reference makes sense now!”

“Sam, you watch Gilmore Girls?” Pepper asked.

He held up a finger and quirked an eyebrow, “Do not judge, that which you do not know.”

A while later Jane sighed audibly, “There is no way he would have been able to stab that needle through her sternum!”

“Shh. It’s just a movie.” Darcy countered.

“But come on! There’s no way! Besides, that’s not even where the heart is, it’s more to the left!”

“I know Janey, I know.”

By the time the movie had ended, Jane was dozing on Thor’s shoulder, and Natasha and Sam had inched ever so slightly closer to each other on the couch. 

Clint turned to Darcy where she was curled up into him and pressed a kiss against her temple.

“Thanks.” He said, just low enough for her to hear. He didn’t specify what the thanks was for, but Darcy knew it was for more than just getting him to join everyone for movie night. 

She sighed contentedly and leaned back into his shoulder. “You’re welcome.”

*

Tony paused his conversation when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned his head towards the elevators.

Darcy marched into the common room with Jane trailing behind her. “What’s up Tony? We were just on our way downstairs. We finally get to get back into the lab today, and Jane’s flipping out.”

Behind her, Jane made a face.

“You're welcome for that, by the way.” Tony snarked, and ignored the middle finger Darcy shot him, “I wanted you two to meet your new personal security team.”

Tony saw Darcy and Jane’s eyes flick towards the tall men behind him, Jane offering a tentative smile, and Darcy a glare. The two men were both dressed in jeans and black t-shirts that stretched tightly across their bulky, muscular frames. 

“Great.” Darcy deadpanned.

Tony gestured for the men to step forward and introduce themselves. The first, a hulking sort of man with dark skin and a bald head held his hand out to Jane. She took it and he shook her hand firmly.

“Doctor Foster, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Um, thanks...”

“Martin Burkham, but everyone just calls me Burk.”

Jane nodded, “Nice to meet you, Burk.”

The second, a man with red hair and a short-trimmed beard, stepped forward and held his hand out to Darcy, “Miss Lewis, I’m Nigel Scott.”

Darcy shot one last mild glare towards Tony, but then held her fist out to her bodyguard, “‘Sup Nigel.” Nigel tucked his fingers in to fistbump her instead.

Tony cleared his throat, gaining everyone’s attention once more, “They’re being paid to go with you anytime you leave the tower, and they’ll be on-call twenty-four-seven. When you’re in the lab, they’ll be right down the hall. Don’t give me that look, Lewis. I’m not gonna have another incident like the lab-jacking.”

Darcy gave him a skeptical glance, “Tony, you realize I don’t actually live here, right? My apartment’s in Brooklyn. I’ve just been here while Clint’s been getting better.”

Tony crossed his arms, “Yeah, I thought of that. Nigel’s officially got an apartment in your building. Right across the hall from you, actually.”

“What!? That’s where Mrs. Coltier and her six cats live. Please tell me you didn’t just kick them out!” Darcy’s aspect had shifted from mildly annoyed to full-on angry.

“Eugenia Coltier now has a luxury five-thousand square foot, three-bedroom apartment in Midtown. She picked it out herself.” Tony held up his hands to stave off her fury. He spared a glance towards Jane and her bodyguard, who were watching the two of them argue with amused expressions on their faces. 

“Ugh. You can’t just go around bribing people out of their apartments, Tony!”

He turned his attention back to Darcy, “Mrs. Coltier drove a hard bargain.”

But Darcy was mostly ignoring him now, “Besides, that seems like overkill. Clint’s already started following me around in the vents.”

That stopped Tony up short. “Bullshit.”

Darcy took out her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and pulled up Clint’s number. She pressed the call button, and held up a single finger to get everyone to stay quiet. A second later they heard the quiet jingle of a ringtone coming from above them.

The ringtone stopped after a moment or two and Clint’s yelled, “Okay, okay I get it,” his voice muffled by the layer of aluminum sheeting between them. Then there were a couple of echoing metallic bangs before Darcy refocused everyone’s attention by clearing her throat at Tony.

Tony was impressed, “Well I’ll be damned.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot fully express to you all how much your comments and kudos mean to me! I always say it, but you are really just some of my absolute favorite humans. I adore the AO3 community so much. Thanks for that, you beautiful souls, you <3 Also, I’m Gryffindancer over on Tumblr too, and I think I’m starting to get the hang of that crazy site, so come hang out with me there toooooo!


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my favorite humans!
> 
> Guys, I was so productive today! I ran a million errands, made a few important phone calls, AND I got this chapter finished and uploaded! *Pats self on back*
> 
> I'm going to be wrapping this story up pretty soon, and I think there's going to be one or two more chapters. Man, it's really snuck up on me. BUT, like I said, I've got another story in the works that should be ready to post before too long.

Tony was trying to get some work done on a prototype shoulder cannon for his suit, but he was having major trouble focusing. Something was just niggling at the back of his mind, and making it impossible to concentrate.

He finally threw his screwdriver down, and stalked over to his work table. “Jarvis, pull up the files we have related to the attack on Foster’s lab.”

 _“Right away, Sir. Is there anything in particular you are looking for?”_ The posh voice answered immediately.

“I don't know.” Tony slumped down into his rolling chair, causing it to slide a few inches, “It just seemed awfully convenient, didn't it, that everything happened while we were out fighting giant arachnids? So how did they know we’d be out?” Tony crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, spinning a little from side to side. “How many people did we lose after the attack?”

_“Eight, Sir. Seven issued formal resignations but one simply did not return to work.”_

Tony’s eyebrow popped up, “That seem a little sketchy to you, Jarv?”

_“It certainly seems out of the ordinary, Sir.”_

“Pull up that employee’s file.” Tony sat up and scooted his chair closer to the worktable.

Jarvis brought up the file, which showed an average looking mousey blonde woman with glasses, she looked exactly the type who could easily blend in anywhere without calling much attention to herself. Exactly the type who could fit in seamlessly as a plant. 

_“Samantha Richards, age twenty seven, began working for the company in mid-January of this year, and has not returned to work since the day following the attack.”_

Tony scratched at his goatee thoughtfully, “Didn’t work for us very long, did she? Also, super sketchy. What did her original background check bring up?”

 _“Her original check brought up nothing out of the ordinary, but I took the liberty of digging a little deeper,”_ Jarvis pulled another tab to the front, which Tony flicked open to enlarge the image. _“According to her bank records, there were small transfers of money into her account over the last three months from the same false company name, ‘Marteau Incorporated.’”_

“How much are we talking in total, here?”

_“All of the transferred money adds up to over twenty-five thousand dollars.”_

“Whoo.” Tony spun around in the chair, before refocusing on the holofile in front of him, “That’ll help pay back those student loans.”

_“Indeed, Sir.”_

Another thought occurred to him then, “Where did this Samantha chick work within the company, exactly?”

_“She was a research assistant in our astrophysics department.”_

“Fuck. That means she probably had some access to some pretty big shit. Jarv, run some scans for this lady. See if we can’t track her down with facial recognition, see if she’s popped back up anywhere else.”

_“Will do, Sir.”_

 

*

“I...am gonna...kill Tony...I sweartogod!” Darcy panted as she lay on the mats in a sweaty frustrated heap.

“Come on, Darce, he just wants you guys to be safe. And so do I.” Clint said patiently, holding a hand out to her to help her up. “Let’s go again.”

“If you... make me do that again... I’m going to... kill you too.” She gasped out, trying to refill her lungs with oxygen. With one hand she tried to bat Clint’s proffered hand away, and she missed. She just let the disappointment of a hand fall back to the mats with a lazy _smack_.

“How are you planning to kill me if you can’t do that, though?” Clint crossed his arms with a smirk.

“I haven’t figured...that part out yet.”

On the set of mats beside theirs there was a loud grunt followed by a louder _thump_. Darcy turned her head to the side to see Jane laid out on the mats much like she was, but with Natasha standing over her instead of Clint.

Tony had insisted that the two of them have some self-defense training in addition to the beefy guys he was paying to follow them. He was so persistent that finally they had given in out of pure frustration, but now Darcy was massively regretting her concurrence. The bodyguards she could handle. And actually they had turned out to be pretty great guys. They weren’t too overbearing and Darcy had discovered that Burk was a pretty big fan of the Harry Potter books, and Nigel -- who had never read them before -- had agreed to give them a shot (he was already starting Prisoner of Azkaban, and Darcy was pretty sure he was hooked), so that made them okay in her opinion. She was also in the process of training Burk to anticipate Jane’s needs the way she did. She figured it couldn’t hurt to have a second set of eyes keeping tabs on the absent-minded scientist, making sure she ate something other than coffee and PopTarts at least once a day.

Darcy was loving that Clint was finally cleared to do some physical activity -- she figured he would be less grumpy, and it meant they could have sex again -- at least until she realized that meant he could help Natasha train her and Jane, which he had volunteered to do almost immediately. Now she just wanted to kill him. And she was definitely withholding the sex if he made her do that thing again.

“Come on ladies. You’ve got to keep working at it.” Natasha sighed.

Jane shook her head from where she lay on the mats, “Nope. I’m done. The universe can have me, Valhalla can have me, I’m out.”

Darcy closed her eyes as if accepting her fate, “Yeah, we clearly suck. We were made for mental and mechanical ass-kicking, not physical ass-kicking.”

“You’re already way better than you were even two days ago.” Clint argued.

“You’re just saying that because my ass looks great in these leggings.”

“No, I’m saying that because you _are_ better.” He uncrossed his arms and held his hand out to help her up once more, “And your ass does look amazing, but that’s not the point.”

“Ugh. I swear, if you weren’t so freaking hot you wouldn’t be able to get me to do any of this.” She batted his hand away and stood up on her own, “That goes for both of you.” Darcy nodded towards Natasha who just smirked and leaned over to help Jane back up.

 

*

“Ughhh.” Darcy groaned flopping back on the couch in the common room, “Everything hurts.”

She had a free afternoon, seeing as Jane had finally made it back to her and Thor’s apartment and fell asleep. The tiny woman had been up for almost thirty-six hours straight, so she would be asleep for a while. Clint was busy in the gym trying to get back in fighting shape, so Darcy had intentionally stayed as clear as she could from anything to do with physical activity. She ended up going back to the common room to hang out and watch some mindless TV with Steve for a while. Nigel was sitting and reading in an armchair on the other side of the room.

“You need an Aspirin?” Steve asked, glancing at her with mild concern.

“I need donuts.” Darcy countered.

Steve snorted in amusement, “You want to make a donut run?”

Darcy closed her eyes and held back another groan, “Don’t mention the R word, please.”

“What? ‘Run?’” He shrugged.

Darcy’s eyes shot open again, “Ugh! No, I said _don’t_ say it. You owe money to the swear jar.”

“We don’t have a swear jar.”

“Well I’m starting one. And you owe a whole dollar for that fucker.”

Steve looked skeptical, “Don’t you owe money for that?”

Darcy sat up carefully, trying not to anger her sore muscles any more than she had to, “That was not a swear word. That was merely a colorful adjective. Swear words are words like, ‘exercise,’ or ‘cardio,’ or ‘kale.’”

“Or ‘run?’”

“Ugh. Stop. You owe another dollar!”

“Sorry! Sorry!” Steve threw his hands up defensively, “ Would it help if I bought you coffee and a box of donuts to make up for it?”

Darcy thought about that for a second before answering, “I could possibly be persuaded.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Steve stood, then helped Darcy extract herself from the couch.

She waved at Nigel who was still reading, “Come along, Nigel darling. It’s donut time!”

Nigel chuckled, but marked his page in Prisoner of Azkaban (Darcy noticed he was almost done, already), set the book aside, picked up his jacket and followed them out the door. When they were in the elevator, she noticed Nigel shrug on his leather jacket to conceal his shoulder holster, and slip his earpiece back into his ear. He sometimes took it out when they were just sitting around in the lab -- said it bothered his ear if he kept it in for too long -- but he always had it hanging around his neck, and he alway wore it when they were moving around anywhere. Darcy knew he also carried a collapsible baton, and was pretty sure he had one more gun and at least two knives hidden on him somewhere. 

They were coming back out of the coffee shop, Darcy navigating around the patio tables right outside the door to the shop with a large box of donuts in her hand when it happened. 

Darcy heard the shot and the shattering of glass but it took her a moment to react, but Steve and Nigel had both sprung into action immediately. One second Darcy was standing there looking for the source of the loud noise, and the next she was on the ground with the wind knocked out of her. She was surrounded by rolling donuts, and finally realized that the heavy weight on top of her was Steve, shielding most of her body with his own. She heard screams of terrified people all around them, and she was able to turn her head enough to see that Nigel was crouched in front of them, semi-automatic in hand. He had flipped one of the cafe’s outdoor tables up to act as an impromptu barricade.

“Holy shit!” She shouted belatedly.

There was another shot. This time it was followed by the sharp crack of wood, as the table in front of Nigel was hit, sending shards of splintering wood everywhere. Nigel didn’t hesitate to fire back, and he took two shots. 

“Got’im!” Nigel shouted to Steve, before coming out of his crouch and running around the broken table. “Keep her covered!”

“Dude,” Darcy grunted, “I can’t breathe.”

“Sorry, Darcy.” Steve shifted off of her so she could sit up, but kept her shielded with his body until he saw some signal from Nigel, at which point he stood and offered a hand to Darcy to help her up.

Darcy peered around the overturned table to see Nigel in the middle of the street, practically kneeling on top of a man laying face down on the pavement. Taxis and cars had stopped on either side of the scene, most of the drivers sticking their heads out the windows or standing just outside the open doors of their vehicles to see what had happened. Darcy took Steve’s hand to push herself to her feet, ignoring the painful protests of her muscles. When they walked over to take a closer look, Nigel was busy zip tying the man’s wrists behind his back. The man was dressed unassumingly in grey sweatpants and a black running jacket, the latter of which was shoved up just enough in the back to reveal the edge of what looked like a kevlar vest. Beside them lay an abandoned semi-automatic, that Darcy realized was probably the shooter’s.

Steve picked up the other gun, using the sleeve of his sweatshirt to avoid getting unnecessary fingerprints on the metal and plastic shell. Nigel finished zip tying the man’s wrists and hauled him to his feet, just as the blare of sirens became audible from around the corner. There were two small bullet holes cut into the front of the shooter’s jacket, and he was moving like he was sore from the impacts.

“You’d think these assholes would learn how to shoot before trying to go after a super soldier.” Nigel quipped, and the man just glared back.

“Who are you working for?” Steve asked in full Captain America voice, getting up in the man’s face. “Did you really think you could kill me, son?”

The man refused to say anything, just sneering in silence as three police cars came barrelling around the corner and screeched to a halt as close to the scene as the other civilian vehicles would allow.

Nigel passed the man off to the police, who made sure he was put into the back of one of the cruisers, then offered the three of them a ride back to the tower in another.

But it wasn’t until they were back in the common room, and Darcy was being crushed in a tight hug from Clint that she realized something disappointing.

“I never got my donuts.” She pouted as Clint finally released her.

“How about we have some delivered instead?” Steve suggested with a wry smile.

Darcy nodded and slumped against Clint’s frame and he helped keep her upright as the adrenaline drained out of her system, and the pain in her muscles began returning.

Tony made his appearance then. The elevator doors opened and he stalked into the room, headed straight for Darcy. Clint let go of her so she could hug Tony, who didn’t let go for several long seconds. Once he did, he pulled back and inspected her for injuries. 

“Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”

“I’m fine, Tony. Really.”

He pointed at Nigel, who was standing off to the side of everyone else, “You’re getting a raise. Like a huge raise. You’re going to be getting stupid amounts of money.” He turned his gaze to Steve next, “Cap, thanks.” Steve nodded back. 

“Tony. I’m good.” Darcy said, finally getting a little frustrated at being treated like a breakable object.

Tony seemed to realize his mildly chauvinistic behavior and he backtracked a bit, “I’m sorry, Darcy. I know you can take care of yourself. I just heard your name and ‘shots fired’ and I went a little crazy.”

“I know, it’s just been a pretty insane afternoon.” Darcy sighed, and turned to face the others in the room. She ran a hand through her tangled hair, “Shit, Jane’s gonna freak out when she wakes up.”

“We’ll bribe her with donuts.” Clint said, putting a hand on Darcy’s back and letting her slump against him once more. 

“You want donuts?” Tony asked, “We’ll get you donuts.”

Darcy smiled tiredly, realizing that Tony’s idea of a donut delivery would probably fill every flat surface in the room, and not minding that picture one bit.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, you wonderful humans!
> 
> I think there will only be one more chapter after this one. But if you haven't already seen it, I've posted the first 3 chapters of my new story too!

Tony looked through the window at the dark haired man who had shot at Steve. According to the police the man’s name was Daniel Rubin, and had recently been released from prison on parole -- he had a history as a hitman. They had been questioning him for two hours now, but so far the only information he had provided was that he hadn’t known who his target was. He had just been given a picture and payment for the job. Other than that he was staying frustratingly silent.

 

Tony had half a mind to put on the suit and go in to do a little questioning of his own.

 

The police chief had told him that they were currently searching Rubin’s apartment for evidence and that they would share the information with the Avengers as soon as they had anything else of substance. But for the time being, he needed to head back to the tower to see if Jarvis had turned up any results.

 

Though, as soon as he got back home, Pepper stopped him.

 

“Tony, good, you’re back.” She said, hanging up a call as he walked into the penthouse. “We need to talk about the gala.”

 

Tony immediately changed directions, turning back towards the elevator instead. “Damn, is it that time of year already?” He waved a hand in her direction, “Oh well, super busy. You know, shooters trying to kill my teammates and all that. Gotta run.”

 

Pepper shook her head, “Oh no you don’t. Jarvis, help me out here.”

 

_“I’m sorry, Sir, but it seems that the private penthouse elevator is temporarily out of order.”_

 

Tony glared upwards, “Traitor.”

 

_ “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sir.” _

 

Pepper called his attention once more, “Tony, we need to go over the guest list.”

 

He turned back around in defeat and walked over to flop down on the plush couch. “If they’re important, rich, and can stick a crowbar in their wallets, put ‘em on the list. Other than that, I couldn’t care less who shows up.”

 

The penthouse elevator _dinged_ as the doors opened, and Darcy stepped out.

 

“Hey, Tony. Jane needs you to come look at something.” She said walking into the room with a stack of folders in her arms.

 

Tony looked back at Pepper and pointed at Darcy, “Except her. She needs to go. I knew you were lying about the elevator.” The last part he directed towards Jarvis, glancing up at the ceiling.

 

Darcy stopped when she drew close enough, “I need to go to what?”

 

“Maria Stark Annual Gala. Big hoity-toity banquet-ey, auction-ey thing. Lots of booze, decent h'orderves.” He said flippantly, with a wave of his hand.

 

“And why do I need to go to this, exactly?” Darcy asked.

 

“Well…” Tony paused and looked at her like it was obvious, “Because...you’re a Stark.”

 

“Tony. I’m not really a Stark.” Darcy rolled her eyes.

 

He was slightly offended at that, “You’re fifty percent a Stark.”

 

Darcy sighed and turned to Pepper then, “What would I have to wear to this thing?”

  
  


*

 

It took some convincing, but Darcy had finally agreed to go to the Gala. If Tony was totally honest with himself he was happy about it, and a little strangely proud. The Gala was a fundraising event for the many charities sponsored by his late mother’s estate, and it was the one fancy event of that sort that he didn’t totally hate going to, himself.

 

And now he had another Stark to share it with. As reluctant as she was, Darcy probably didn’t understand what it meant to him that she was going to be there. He wasn’t usually big on the Emotional Stuff.

 

But that was still more than a week away. And Tony had more pressing things to concern himself with for the time being. 

 

Namely, the fact that some asshole had shot so close to his kid. 

 

“Jarvis, what’ve you got for me?” Tony asked, waltzing into his workshop.

 

_ “I have received several results in relation to the name ‘Daniel Rubin.’ Additionally, I have pulled up three videos of the incident that were posted online from various civilian phones in the area.” _

 

“Let me check this guy out first.”

 

_ “Certainly, Sir.” _

 

Tony expanded the tabs Jarvis had pulled up in relation to the shooter, and with a flick of his wrist, they filled the holoscreens surrounding him.

 

Instantly, he recognized some suspicious markers.

 

“Marteau Incorporated. This asshole got paid by the same dummy company as those other dicks.” He scrolled through a listing of information, “Yeah, I figured as much -- Jasmine Thrum. That name keeps popping up like a crazy ex. Jarvis, have we been able to find anything else on this chick yet?”

 

_ “No, Sir. Searches for her name only bring up the same shallow pool of information as before.” _

 

“I swear to Hammer-pants, I’m gonna find this chick and we’re gonna have a nice long chat about not being a total piece of shit.” Tony flicked his wrist again to minimize the boxes he had open. “Jarvis, pull up those videos. I wanna get a closer look at this asshole.”

 

_ “Right away, Sir.” _

 

The video boxes each appeared on a different screen and he started the first one. It had been taken from inside the donut shop, through the front window. The person taking the video had been crouched down to the side a bit, so the angle was a little odd. The first thing he saw was the shape of three bodies through the spiderwebbed glass of the window, but he could still make out the form of Nigel pulling out his gun and flipping what looked like a table, and behind him a tall blonde man -- who was clearly Cap -- tackling Darcy to the ground. A split second later another bullet pierced the window, this time, shattering the whole thing in a shower of glass. The video lurched to the side as the person ducked out of the way and he heard shrieks and screams from the people inside the donut shop before the video suddenly cut off.

 

He turned to the second screen and started the video. This one was taken by someone on the sidewalk. It started at roughly the same time as the first video, shortly after the first shot had been fired, since the window of the donut shop was already spiderwebbed from the first bullet. He saw Darcy standing there, looking a little dumbfounded, as Nigel pulled out his side arm and flipped the table up to act as a barricade in front of them, and Cap tackled her to the ground, covering her body with his own. A moment later he heard the second shot and the shop window shattered. A third shot hit the table in front of Nigel, splintering the wood, and second later he shot back twice. The camera shook as the person filming ducked at the sound and readjusted their angle, then he was watching as Nigel ran into the street and knelt down beside the prostrate shooter. The video shook again and stopped a second later.

 

Tony turned to the third screen and started the last video. It started out looking directly at Darcy standing in front of the donut shop window, the glass spider-webbing out from a spot on her left, and with Cap standing behind her and just a little to her right. He saw as Cap pushed Darcy to the ground to cover her, and as Nigel flipped the table. At this angle, he could see that the second shot hit the glass much lower than the first, and the shooter came into view as the third shot splintered the wood of the table just to the left of Nigel’s shoulder and just before he shot back.

 

Tony rewound that video. There was something about it that niggled at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. He watched it six more times, before slowing down the footage. 

 

But then he caught it. The window. The pattern of broken glass webbed out from a spot to the _left_ of Darcy. Cap was standing just behind her and to the _right._

 

Either the guy just had really shitty aim, or…

 

Tony’s phone rang at that moment, making him jump slightly.

 

“Stark.” He answered.

 

_ “Yes, Mr. Stark. This is Chief Jones.” _

 

“Oh yeah. What’ve you got?”

 

_ “We searched Rubin’s apartment from top to bottom, and we did find a set of photographs like he had mentioned. But they weren’t of Captain Rogers as we had thought.” _

 

“Okay?”

 

_ “I’m sending you the images now.” _

 

Tony switched the Chief to speaker phone and flicked the slim phone screen so the images would project to his holoscreens. A split second later the images appeared, and like the Chief had said, they weren’t of Cap. Tony felt the blood drain out of his face and his stomach sank like a rock.

 

They were of Darcy.

  
  


*

 

“Any idea why Tony beefed up the security so much?” Jane asked, her voice slightly muffled from behind the dressing room door.

 

Tony had gone a little nuts with the security measures in the last week. He had hired two more bodyguards and was insisting that she have _all_ of them with her anytime she left the building for any reason at all. She had gone out for coffee once, and it had been such a fucking circus that she hadn’t left the tower since then. She and Clint were still staying in their apartment at the tower upon Tony’s insistence, and it was starting to grate at her. She couldn’t so much as scratch her nose without having to be watched by three guys who looked like they could wrestle a bear at a moment’s notice.

 

Darcy pulled up the zipper on the dress she was trying on. “I think he’s just freaked after the whole incident the other day with that guy shooting at Steve. He didn’t like that I was so close to it all, you know?” She answered, turning to the side to examine the dress in the dressing room mirror.

 

“That makes sense, I guess. What about this one?” 

 

Darcy heard the curtain to Jane’s dressing room slide open, and she opened hers as well to take a look.

 

“Holy crap, no. Chartreuse is not your color. Chartreuse is no one’s color. Chartreuse shouldn’t even be a color.”

 

“Point taken,” Jane laughed, retreating back into the dressing room to change.

 

They were out shopping for dresses for the gala, which was only two days away. Darcy had been putting it off because she was dreading the public safety production that was her life now. As it was, her security team had cleared out the entire boutique before they could try on a single dress. Nigel was posted at the entrance to the dressing room, while Burk and the two other bodyguards were posted at the front and back entrances of the store. 

  
Darcy closed the curtain again and pulled down the zipper to change dresses again. She rolled her eyes to herself at the thought of needing her security team to clear out every business she might ever visit again. Taking trips outside just weren’t worth the trouble anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason, this chapter was doing some WEIRD formatty things. But hopefully, it looks okay now.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my favorite humans!
> 
> I am so sorry this last chapter took so long to get out. As I said, it is the final chapter of this wonderful little story, and I think I was procrastinating, so it wouldn't have to be over yet!
> 
> But here it is, my dears! And I am particularly proud of it. I considered writing a super short epilogue as well, but I finally just decided to wrap it all up in this one chapter.
> 
> So here you go, my lovelies <3

Tony swiped through his emails on his tablet and pushed open the door to his workshop with his shoulder.

“Hey, Tony.”

He jumped and looked up, “Argh!” He cried, then spotted the source of the greeting. Darcy was sitting behind his desk and was working on closing down several holo tabs she had had open. Her hair was curled and held in a complicated looking updo, and her makeup was clearly already done for the gala, but she was still dressed in a pair of leggings and a ratty flannel shirt.

“Holy shit! Stop doing that!” Tony insisted.

She met his stare and shrugged, “What? That’s the thanks I get for working out the kinks in your suit’s visual specs?”

“I...” Tony shook his head as if to clear it. “Is that what you’re doing?”

She nodded as he crossed to see what she had been looking at on his holoscreens. “Yeah. You had a flaw with the GPS system. It was lagging a little.”

Tony made a face. “You know, that’s always bugged me. You fixed it?”

“Yep. Should be real-time now.”

“Huh.” He said in appreciation. Then he thought of something else, “You also hiding out from your security detail here?”

Darcy shrugged again and crossed her arms, leaning back in his chair. “Maybe. But I still haven’t heard a ‘thank you.’”

“Thanks, kid.”

She rolled her eyes in an over dramatic way. “Ugh. You’re such a sap.”

“I will sue you for slander if that gets out.” He jabbed a finger into her shoulder, and she made a face. “Don’t think I won’t just because we share DNA.”

“Uh huh. Sure.”

But then they were interrupted by Pepper’s frustrated voice from the doorway. “Tony, Darcy!”

Tony closed his eyes. He had been avoiding her, since she had been trying, for the last two hours, to get him to put on his tuxedo so they could leave for the gala. “Oops.”

“Crap,” Darcy’s eyebrows shot upward. “What time is it?”

Pepper, who was dressed in a sparkling silver sheath gown, crossed her arms, “It’s almost six thirty. The limo is supposed to leave in fifteen minutes!”

Darcy pushed out the chair and stood up, “Shit. I have to get ready. Later.”

“Hey, Lewis,” Tony called out, and she stopped and turned around with a frustrated expression on her face.

“Oh my god, what?”

“Thanks. For real.”

The annoyed look was replaced by a smile. “You’re welcome, Tony.”

*

Darcy had to admit, the Starks knew how to host an event. The banquet hall where the Maria Stark Foundation Gala was being held was, frankly, gorgeous. The whole place was a beautiful example of Neoclassical architecture, with towering pillars that framed the hall and led up to the vaulted ceiling. It had sprawling marble floors, and beautiful staircases on either end of the hall that led up to a balcony floor that circled the main space, and where guests could look out and down upon the tables and dance floor below from archways carved with elaborate reliefs. Floodlights at the base of the pillars cast the whole room with a dim glow and made everything seem that much more elegant.

She was duly impressed.

Darcy arrived with Clint, as well as Sam, Thor, and Jane, and, of course, their security squad (Darcy was thinking of getting hot pink t-shirts printed up with that name, for all of them to wear). Bruce had stayed home that night, not wanting to deal with the crowd of people and the hubbub, and Natasha and Steve were out on a mission, so Sam had shown up stag. Once their group had entered and dealt with a crowd of press and paparazzi outside the venue, thoughts turned toward the fabulously stocked open bar.

“Shall I fetch us some imbibment?” Thor asked, turning towards everyone.

Jane unhooked her arm from his, “Just some champagne. Thanks, babe.”

Darcy glanced at the bar, “I’ll take a Macallan’s if you’re taking orders.”

“I would be happy to oblige, dear shield sister,” Thor replied with a grin and a wink.

Clint held up a couple fingers, “Make that two. And make mine a double.”

“I’ll come help you, man,” Sam added and put a hand on Thor’s shoulder.

Thor agreed with a nod, and the two of them set off towards the bar.

Clint rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. “I feel like a penguin in this thing.”

“Yeah, but you look sexy as hell,” Darcy said, elbowing him playfully in the side.

His expression perked up a bit, “Really?”

“Yes.” Darcy made a face at him. “Also, this is where you compliment your lady on her looks, babe.” She encouraged, and Jane smirked at the two of them.

“You do look amazing.” He said, eyeing her up and down, and settling for a while on her chest.

Darcy’s mouth quirked to the side, “Mmhmm.”

But Clint recovered quickly, and have her a serious look, “I mean it, Darcy. You look beautiful.” He pulled her in close, and she obliged him with a kiss and a smile.

“Thanks.”

Jane cut in then, “I think Nigel has an eye for fashion. That dress was his pick.” 

The red-headed man shifted a little with the sudden attention on him, “I don’t know that I necessarily picked it for her, Doctor Foster.”

“Yeah, well,” Darcy shrugged, “It was between this one and the blue one. And you said this one made me look like Vivien Leigh, so that made it a non-contest. Hey Tony, hey Happy.” She greeted the two other men as they sidled up to their little group.

“Who looks like Vivien Leigh?” Tony asked, before actually giving them a once over, “Whoa. Holy Gone With The Cleavage, Batman.”

Darcy glared. “Don’t be weird, Tony.”

“Who’s being weird? I just had a wave of fatherly instincts sweep over me. Some sort of latent desire to take your car keys away and say something like, ‘You’re not leaving the house like that, young lady.’” At Darcy’s expression, he held up a defensive hand, “Don’t worry, it’s fine. It passed.”

Pepper strolled up beside Tony then, looking like a supermodel in her silver gown, and Tony seemed to take that as his cue to unsubtly change the subject.

“Have any of you noticed, by the way, how gorgeous Pepper looks? Isn’t she amazing? You know, sometimes I find myself just marveling at your beauty. Not that your looks define you, or anything, but they are quite spectacular.”

“You’re just digging yourself a hole, Tony.”

“Who’s digging anything?”

“Shut up and get me a drink.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

*

Tony saw that Darcy was standing by herself on the edge of the dance floor, sipping a glass of champagne. He had seen her and Clint dancing several minutes earlier and looked over again when he noticed Clint heading off in the direction of the bathrooms. He stuck his hands in his pockets and strolled over until he could bump her shoulder with his, getting her attention.

“What’s up, Tony?” She asked, lowering the glass in her hand.

“I saw that Clint disappeared, so I was going to see if I could cut in and have a dance until he comes back.” He proposed.

“You want to dance?”

He swung his elbows out a little in a shrug, “I think that’s what I just asked.”

A slight smile crossed her face, “Sure, Tony.”

She leaned over to deposit the champagne on a nearby table, then followed him onto the floor. Once they were situated and circling slowly (and cautiously --Tony wasn’t exactly the world’s best dancer), he grinned at her.

“You having a terrible time?” He asked. She hadn’t been incredibly enthusiastic when he’d first mentioned the gala to her.

“Not really.” She shrugged, “It’s not too bad, actually. Top shelf booze, the hors d'oeuvres are amazing, and the music’s not bad either. Pepper throws one hell of a party.”

“Hey!” Tony’s brow furrowed, “I helped.”

“Sure you did.” She said blandly.

“I did! The bartender was going to serve Jim Beam,” Tony held back a shudder, “And I put a stop to that shit!”

“Well, thank god for that.” Darcy rolled her eyes.

“You joke, but this whole event could have gone down the drain.”

“Uh huh.”

Just then, their conversation was interrupted by a loud bang, which was immediately followed by two more.

“What the hell was that?” Darcy asked. Her expression only appeared to be mildly panicked, and Tony had to give her some credit. She was definitely getting used to the Avengers’ lifestyle.

“I don’t know.” He pulled a red and gold comm piece out of his pocket and stuck it in his ear, “Jarvis, you with me?”

_“Present and accounted for, Sir.”_

“Good. I--” Tony was stopped by another deafening boom, and this time, the wall caved in across the room from them, sending plaster and stone flying everywhere. Tony grabbed Darcy and threw them both to the ground, making sure to cover her head as they went down.

A second later, he lifted his head and coughed from the dust that permeated the air. “Jarvis! I need satellite specs loading, now!”

_Right away, Sir._

He sat up and put a hand to Darcy’s back, she was coughing from the dust -- and possibly from having the wind knocked out of her -- but she seemed to be fine.

“You okay?” He asked, pounding her on the back as she attempted to sit up.

“Yeah, I’m good, Tony. Go do your thing!”

“Will do. Get to Nigel and the others, okay?”

“Got it!” She nodded and cautiously got up.

The second he was sure she was okay, Tony whipped his head around and spotted Happy only a few feet away from him. In his hand, he still held the case that housed Tony’s portable suit. “Happy! Briefcase!” He shouted.

Happy tossed him the red and gold case, and Tony wasted no time, flipping it so he could step into the foot pieces of the portable suit. The rest of the suit built around him, and he locked in. Jarvis already had the specs up on the flight screen in front of his face, and he spun around to get a good look at the area through the still-clearing dust.

There was a giant hole in the side of the building, and a moment later, a squadron of drones flew through, herding the shocked and scared attendees away from the wreckage. Then a figure appeared through the dust, strutting inside like he owned the place.

It took Tony a second to recognize the man, from sheer shock: Justin Hammer, in the flesh. He seemed to be controlling the drones via a sleek metal cuff on his wrist.

But Tony didn’t have a chance to do anything, before one of the drones was pushing him and the people around him back and out of the way. About fifteen feet away, he saw Sam and several feet beyond him, Thor -- who must have called Mjolnir to him, sometime during the initial chaos, since the hammer already sat poised in his hand. The Asgardian was herding Jane behind his much larger frame. When they finally stopped pushing the crowd back, the humanoid drones stopped and each held up an armored arm in a threatening way. He glanced around and found Pepper across the room, being shielded on either side by Happy and one of the other bodyguards, and he breathed a tiny sigh of relief at that.

Then he turned his focus back on the situation at hand.

“Jarvis, how many rockets did I install in this suit?”

_“Twelve, Sir.”_

“And how many drones do you count?”

_“Twelve, Sir.”_

“Perfect,” Tony said with a determined smirk.

He initiated the homing protocol to have his rockets lock onto each of the drones, and was about to launch them when his concentration was ripped away with one desperate word.

“DAD!”

He shifted his focus to the noise and saw that Hammer had somehow found and grabbed Darcy, and was holding a gun to her head. Her hair was coming out of its carefully sculpted style, and his left arm was wrapped around her shoulders. 

“Darcy, hold on!” Tony shouted back, then to Hammer, he said, “I've got rockets locked into all of your drones. I can have them down in a second and a half.”

Hammer smirked, “Do that and she dies.”

“So this is your big thing?” Tony asked. He was disgusted by the look of self-righteous confidence on the little rat’s face, “You always liked big shows.”

“Well, ‘all the world’s a stage,’ and all that poetic crap.” Hammer shrugged, casually waving the gun around before returning it to Darcy’s temple. “I had plenty of time to plan the whole thing out in lock up. And it took some work, of course. Wasn't exactly easy to get my feet back under me with all my assets frozen. I had to find some backers before I could hire those guys to break into Doctor Foster’s lab. Had to pay them out of pocket, too. Nasty business, dealing with cash. You never know where it’s been -- germs and bacteria -- yeesh.” Hammer shivered and shook his head.

A thought flashed through Tony’s mind, “I thought those men were hired by Jasmine Thrum.”

“Oh, they were.” Hammer confirmed, “Or at least _they thought_ they were. Them _and_ the guy I hired to ambush this little lady and Mr. God Bless America the other day. But none of them ever met her in the flesh, though. Couldn't know what she looked like.” His smirk widened, and he asked, “You like that name?”

Tony ran through the letters in his head, then huffed through his nose in frustrated appreciation. “You smarmy bastard. You think you're so clever.”

“What?” Sam asked, glancing between Tony and Hammer.

“ _‘Jasmine Thrum.’_ It’s an anagram of Justin Hammer.” Tony explained.

“I thought it was particularly cute,” Hammer grinned.

“You were trying to steal Jane’s work.” Thor said then, “For what purpose?”

“For the simple pleasure of taking your stuff,” Hammer said, with another infuriating shrug. “If I steal it and publish it first, then it makes you look like an idiot. And I do just _love_ making you look like and idiot.” He grinned at Tony, “That was a pretty nice setup, though, you’ve got to admit. Getting Doom to distract you guys while those guys fucked up Foster’s lab? Victor Von Doom’s become a pretty close-- well, I don't know if I'd call him a friend, per se. But he’s definitely an ally, and the guy’s got deep pockets. We’ve got… similar interests.”

Tony was losing his patience now, “What’s the end game, Hammer? Get to the point, already.”

“Just a minute, Stark. I’m on a roll. I was super interested to find out about this one.” He dug the muzzle of the gun harder against Darcy’s temple, making her flinch. Tony’s stomach roiled with anger. “At first, I just wanted your research -- that Doctor Foster is a pretty smart cookie --” Tony heard Thor make a furious noise. “But pay the right people and you can find out anything. Like, for example, that the high and mighty Tony Stark has a kid. That was a fun surprise.” Hammer cocked his head to the side. “Tell me, Stark, where’ve you been hiding her all these years? Oh, wait -- that’s right. You didn’t know about her, did you?”

“What the hell do you want?” Tony demanded.

Hammer was gesturing with the gun again. “It’s simple, really. I want what you took from me. You,” He pointed the gun straight at Tony, “Got me stuck in Seagate for years. Not too happy about that, Stark. I’m in the prime of my life -- I can’t get those years back. And if I can't have what you took from me, then I have to take something from you.” The gun was pressed against Darcy’s head once more.

“Hammer...” Tony started cautiously, taking half a step forward, his hand up.

Hammer pointed the gun back at him to stop him. “Ah ah ah, Stark. You really don’t get it do you--Uhnph!” There was a split second where no one quite knew what was happening.

It took Tony a moment to realize that the thing that had shut Hammer up was an arrow, that had gone straight through his shoulder. Tony glanced quickly up at where the arrow had come from, to see Barton perched on the ledge of one of the upper balconies, compact bow in hand. Tony turned his attention back to Hammer where Darcy was still dealing with him.

With Hammer sufficiently distracted by the foreign metal object sticking out of his shoulder, he had dropped the gun and loosened his grip on her. She took that chance to knock her elbow back into his gut, hard. Next, she slammed her stiletto heel down onto his foot, spun around and jammed the heel of her hand up against his nose which started spurting blood almost immediately. Then she brought her knee up fast, to hit him in between the legs, and while he was both hunched over and trying to control the flow of blood from his nose with his good hand, Darcy dropped to the floor and swept her leg out and around, knocking his legs out from under him. Hammer landed on his back with a groan, and just when it looked as though he might try to stand up again, Darcy had pulled her StarkTaser out from somewhere and hit the trigger, shocking Hammer where he lay.

The cuff on his wrist sparked, and the drones began convulsing with the voltage, before finally, disengaging altogether.

Darcy tossed her spent taser to the side and stuck her hands on her hips, “No, _you_ really don’t get it, Hammer. So let me spell it out for you. Don’t. Fuck. With. Starks. We will kick your ass every time.”

By this point, with the drones deactivated, the security squad had recovered enough and had fairly surrounded Hammer where he lay.

“You alright, Miss Lewis?” Nigel asked, resting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a careful and professional once over.

“Yep. Other than getting this asshole’s blood on my dress, I’m perfect.” She said with a smile.

“Good.” The other bodyguards had gotten Hammer to his feet and zip-tied his wrists together, not paying too much mind to his injured shoulder. His head was lolling a bit, and he looked half-unconscious when Tony walked up to them. “What do you want to be done with him, Mr. Stark?” Nigel asked.

“Let’s make sure he goes with the Feds, gentlemen. I think Seagate’s got a vacancy.”

“Yes, sir.” Nigel nodded, then led him off to the side to await the authorities.  
“Let’s make sure he gets one of those tiny rooms, yeah? Tell ‘em I suggested solitary!” He shouted after them, then he turned his focus on the girl in front of him.

“Darcy.”

“Tony.”

He wasn’t completely sure what to say then. “You okay, kid? How’d that taser work out?”

“I’m fine. And the taser was nice. Smooth release. Good reaction time.”

“Good.” They were both silent for a half second until Tony couldn’t help himself anymore. He leaned forward and swept her up in a tight hug which she returned. He thought he heard her sniffle in his ear, but when they pulled apart, she had a resigned smile on her face.

“The taser could use a paint job, though.”

“Really? You don’t like the red? That’s Iron Man red. I had that trademarked.”

“I’m thinkin’ purple.”

Tony narrowed his eyes, “We’ll talk about it.”

“Nice moves, Lewis.” Sam said, coming up and interrupting them, “You learn all that from Romanoff?”

Darcy’s smile widened. “Nah. The leg sweep I learned from Nat. The rest I got from Sandra Bullock in a tiara.”

“What?”

“You never learned to S.I.N.G?” She asked, shaking her head. “Shameful.”

Barton finally joined them then, “Banner’ll be sorry he missed this.” He wrapped his arms around Darcy and kissed her on the temple. It didn’t escape Tony’s notice that it happened to be exactly the spot that Hammer had been shoving his gun, only minutes before.

Sam raised an eyebrow, “Somehow I don’t think he will.”

“Nice shot, Barton.” Tony mentioned, clapping a hand on Barton’s back, “Thanks for keepin’ an eye on my girl, here.”

“Well, I’m pretty invested in keeping her around.” He looked at her, and she rolled her eyes.

“Oh, you hopeless romantic, you.”

“You love me.”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

“Alright, alright. Where’s everyone else? Everyone accounted for?” Tony asked, getting down to business. He started to move, and realized he was still in the suit, but he shrugged internally and kept walking. He’d deal with it later. The suit tended to get people to listen to him anyways -- something about wearing a literal small arsenal of weapons…

He strolled over to where a typically composed Pepper was speaking to several police officers and a tall man who looked to be the Fire Marshal. Happy was standing beside her looking stoic and professional. Tony swept an arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss, interrupting her spiel about crowd control.

When he pulled away she looked relieved for a moment, then it quickly turned to mild annoyance.

“Tony.” Her voice had a particular _I was in the middle of something, can’t we deal with this later_ sort of tone he knew all too well. So he quickly covered for himself.

“Just wanted to make sure you were alright, my dear. Now I’ll let you and these fine gentlemen continue what you were discussing. Listen to her, gents. She knows her stuff.”

*

A few minutes later Darcy had been checked out by medical and made sure Jane was safe. Clint was off helping Sam and Thor deal with crowd control, on Pepper’s orders. She looked around and found Tony leaning against one of the still-standing pillars along the edge of the now well-ventilated room. Everything seemed to be fairly well under control, and she could feel her adrenaline beginning to crash, so she figured she’d escape some of the frenzy.

He noticed her out of the corner of his eye and looked up as she approached. She came all the way up and leaned against the pillar right beside him.

“You look tired.”

“So do you.”

“It’s been a long day.”

“Taking down former nemeses can do that,” She knocked her elbow lightly against his. “Or so I’ve heard.”

“Yeah? Who’d you hear that from?”

“Steve. The whole HYDRA thing was a real bee in his bonnet.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t so fond of that one myself.”

They were both quiet for a moment, before Tony’s stomach gurgled audibly, making Darcy laugh.

“You hungry?”

“I guess so. You wanna sneak out of here and get some pizza?”

“The police wanted me to make a statement.”

“Eh. We’ll phone it in later.”

“I am pretty starving.”

“That’s the spirit, Lewis.”

Darcy looked down and found herself grinning at nothing. She thought about how lost she had felt only a year ago, and it was hard to believe it had only been that long. Her father’s death had been such a crushing blow, and some of the realizations of the past year had made it even worse at times. But she thought about what she had gained in those few months as well.

She was living in a building with some of the craziest and most loving people she knew, and she had a boyfriend who loved her (in spite of making her worry herself silly sometimes). Her friends lifted her up and made her feel safe and appreciated every day. And to top it off, she had Tony. Darcy didn’t know if she would ever feel like he was truly and completely her dad, the way that she’d felt with her father growing up. But he had definitely come to feel like a father-type figure to her in enough ways that counted. And he was indisputably family.

“So pizza?” Tony’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. He held out a metallic hand, “You’ll have to hold on tight, but I figure the suit’s the best way to go. The cops probably have this whole neighborhood shut down to traffic.”

Darcy gave the red and gold thing a once over and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay.”

“Awesome. How about Mariano’s? They’ve got kickass garlic knots.”

“Sounds perfect, Tony,” Darcy replied. Then she wrapped her arms around the neck of his suit and braced herself for the takeoff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! Thank you so much to everyone who left kudos, or left me any wonderful comments and love on this story! You all are amazing and wonderful, and you never fail to brighten my day <3 
> 
> I'm on Tumblr under the names "dftbalicia11," and "gryffindancer." Come hang out with me there :D Message me prompts if you've got 'em! I'm still working on _Markings Made On My Skin,_ and I have a few ideas for one shots rolling around in my head, so there's plenty happening still!  <3<3<3
> 
> For reference:  
> Darcy's dress is, of course, loosely inspired by the famous red dress worn by Vivien Leigh in _Gone With the Wind_ \--  
>  http://66.media.tumblr.com/f064b8fd19aa645f9cd1e4114b8d88d7/tumblr_mz3k11Ps7F1tocprwo7_400.jpg
> 
> The ballroom/banquet hall was based on Stanley Field Hall, at the Field Museum, here in Chicago. If you ever have a chance to go to an after hours event there? Do it. It is absolutely gorgeous, especially all lit up for an event. My college had a parent's weekend banquet there my freshman year, and it was stunning --  
> https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_1200w/public/INTA2.JPG?itok=Z9AfwQZh  
> https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_1200w/public/SFH%20Tut-%202.jpg?itok=NNLJZgSb


End file.
